WASHINGTON, D.C. - Catholic men's basketball earned a hard-fought 81-76 victory over Drew on Saturday afternoon on Franny Murray Court, earning the number two seed in the Landmark Conference Tournament. 

Jesse Hafemeister led the offense with 24 points and pulled in eight rebounds for the Cardinals while Tommy Kelly (19) and Sean Neylon (15) joined him in double figures. Jamie Ntiamoah gave the Cardinals 19 strong minutes off the bench, scoring seven points and grabbing six rebounds. 

Tied 59-59 with 9:37 to go, Catholic jumped ahead 66-59 after a 7-0 run spanning 3:37. Neylon drained a three off an assist from Kelly to start the run with Brian Herbert draining a pair of free throws to give the Cardinals a seven-point lead at the 6:20 mark. A jumper from Kelly put Catholic up nine with 4:25 left, but the Rangers got a three from Andrew Turco with 4:03 left on the clock to narrow the gap to 70-64. Turco struck twice more at the 3:16 mark and the 2:54 mark, tying the contest at 70-70 with a solo 9-0 run. 

Hafemeister ended the run with 2:27 left in the contest, putting Catholic back on top by three with an and-one off a feed from Herbert. Neylon knocked down a pair of shots from the charity stripe with 1:18 remaining to put the Cardinals ahead 75-71. Howard McBurnie Jr. hit a triple out of the Drew timeout, pulling the Rangers back within one with 62 seconds to play. Kelly drove the paint, missing it too strong off the glass, but Hafemeister was there for the tip-in and the Cardinal lead was three with 44 seconds left. 

After a pair of stops on the defensive end, Neylon went back to the line with 25 seconds remaining, putting Catholic ahead by five. The Rangers trimmed it back to three with two free throws with 17 seconds left. The Cardinals turned it over, but got the stop and Hafemeister hit a couple of free throws with 1.7 on the clock to close out an 81-76 win for the Cardinals. 

After falling behind by six late in the first half, Catholic used a 10-2 run to take a 35-33 halftime lead as Neylon hit a triple with 35 seconds left. The Cardinals led by as many as 11 early on in the second half before the Rangers tied the game with less than 10 to play. 

The Cardinals honored four seniors on Saturday afternoon - Pat Buckley, Jack Kouba, Stephanie Ibe (manager), and Vince Johnson (manager). 

Catholic will be the number two seed in the upcoming Landmark Conference Tournament and will host the three seed, Scranton, on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in the DuFour Center.