LET'S DANCE: Men's Basketball receives NCAA at-large bid as No. 7 seed in region

INDIANAPOLIS – For the third consecutive season and fifth time under Head Coach Rob Perron, the Catawba College men's basketball team has earned an NCAA Tournament berth as announced in the selection show Sunday night.

Catawba secured an at-large bid with the No. 7 seed in the Southeast Regional hosted by top-seeded Columbus State. The quarterfinal matchups will take place on Saturday, Mar. 15, followed by the semifinals on Sunday and the regional championship on Tuesday. The winner of the Southeast Region heads to the Men's Elite Eight in Evansville, Ind. on Mar. 25-29.

The Catawba Indians enter the national tournament with an 18-12 record and an appearance in the South Atlantic Conference semifinal round. After being slotted ninth in the final regional poll, Catawba took down the eighth-ranked Coker Cobras 80-75 before giving eventual-SAC Tournament champion Lenoir-Rhyne all it could handle in an 84-83 defeat. The gritty performance persuaded the regional committee to lift Catawba into the top eight on Sunday.

Kris Robinson leads all Catawba Indian scorers with 15.1 points per game, powered by a program-record 93 three-pointers on a 38.1% success rate. Nick Walker stars as the 14th-most efficient shooter in Division II while averaging 14.1 points and 6.7 boards. The squad is recording high marks nationally, standing ninth in offensive rebounds per game (15.27), 13th in steals per game (10.5) and 27th in rebounding margin (5.6).

Catawba begins its regional run against a familiar foe in second-seeded USC Aiken. The programs met back on Nov. 10 and squared off in the regional quarterfinals two years ago.

Southeast Regional Quarterfinals

#1 seed Columbus State (26-4) vs. #8 seed Carson-Newman (21-11)

#2 seed USC Aiken (22-8) vs. #7 seed Catawba (18-12)

#3 seed Lenoir-Rhyne (26-5) vs. #6 seed Augusta (19-10)

#4 seed Lincoln Memorial (25-5) vs. #5 seed UNC Pembroke (23-6)

Tune In

All Southeast Regional games will be broadcast live on the PBC Sports Network. Live stats will be available on csucougars.com.