By RENALDO DORSETT
Tribune Sports Reporter
rdorsett@tribunemedia.net
THE NCAA Division II NCAA basketball season tips off today and a pair of veteran Bahamian prospects look to build on their productive 2021-22 seasons.
Both Malachi McCoy (Benedict Tigers) and Johnathan McFall (Slippery Rock) will make the season debuts for their respective programmes in the season opener.
McCoy and the Tigers will host Florida Tech 7:30pm tonight at the HRC Arena in Columbia, South Carolina.
The Tigers were picked to finish second in the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference East Division.
Last season, Benedict finished 22-7 overall record (14-3 SIAC record) and earned a berth in the 2022 SIAC Championship game.
Expectations loom large for the 6’5” senior following a breakout campaign that was filled with career highs. He averaged 10.9 points and a team-leading 8.9 rebounds per game. He also led the team with 41 blocked shots.
As a freshman he averaged 7.3 points and 4.7 rebounds per game and last year, in the COVID-19 shortened season, he averaged just 5.9 points and 4.3 rebounds per game.
The Berry Islands native said he has seen the team continue to grow over the course of the last three seasons he has been with the programme. “I’ve grown, I’ve seen the team grow. When I came here we were a 14 win team,” McCoy said. “To go from that to 22 wins, I think it’s pretty good.”
McFall and Slippery Rock will open the season hosting Alderson Broaddus at Morrow Field House in Spippery Rock, Pennsylvania. SRU was picked to finish fifth in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division this season in the preseason coaches poll.
The top six teams from each division at the end of the regular season qualify for the PSAC Tournament. Slippery Rock has reached the PSAC Tournament in 10 of the last 11 seasons in which the postseason tournament has been held.
Slippery Rock is coming off a 2021-22 season in which it went 17-12 overall and 13-9 in the PSAC West while earning a conference tournament bid in the first round of the PSAC tournament.
McFall scored 14 in the season finale. In his first season with SRU he averaged 13 points, 4.9 rebounds, 1.1 steals and one block per game. He also shot 52 percent from the field and 83 percent from the free throw line.
McFall transferred to SRU after a year with Chowan and after a two-year stint with Catawba Valley Community College Red Hawks.
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