WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic University men's basketball team won its sixth-straight game on Wednesday night, knocking off Juniata 80-59.
The veteran duo of Jesse Hafemeister and Tommy Kelly both eclipsed 20 points in the victory. Kelly was an efficient 7-for-10 from the field and knocked down three of his four three-point attempts. He was also 3-for-3 from the free-throw line while forcing three steals and providing three assists.
Hafemeister came up just one rebound shy of a double-double. He grabbed a team-high nine rebounds while also forcing three steals and providing two assists. Hafemeister's 20 points elevated him five spots on Catholic's all-time scoring list, pushing him up to 22nd while passing Andre Mitchell ('19), RJ Dixon ('11), Patrick Dwyer ('07), Sammy Briggs ('97), and Bob Talbot ('59).
The senior from Mendham, N.J., set the tone for Aaron Kelly's team, scoring No. 25 Catholic's first eight points of the game. He knocked down a pair of three-pointers before causing a Juniata turnover. Then on the next offensive possession, Hafemeister hit a pretty jumper in the paint to push the Cardinals out to an early 8-2 lead.
Catholic continued to perform on the offensive end of the court, shooting to an over-50 percent clip from the field in the opening stanza. The Cardinals pushed the lead to 12 multiple times in the first 20 minutes and took an 11-point advantage to the locker room.
Juniata and Catholic exchanged blows early in the second half before Catholic used a 12-2 run early in the second half to jump out to a 50-37 lead after a Dan Buckley jumper. Kelly pushed the Catholic lead to 20 with 11:12 left to play as the Cardinals held a 59-39 lead.
The Eagles punched back, trimming the deficit to just nine points after ripping off an 11-0 run as Evan Eisenhart finished off an assist from Chase Husted, forcing a Catholic timeout with 9:13 left to play. Catholic scored the next seven points out of the timeout as Hafemeister scored four and Kelly knocked down a three, putting the Cardinals ahead 66-50 with 6:35 to go.
The Cardinal lead never dipped back below 10 points over the final 6:35 as Catholic finished off an 80-59 victory to push its record to 6-1 in Landmark Conference play ahead of Friday's meeting with Scranton.
Despite the clear size advantage for the All-Landmark big man Husted, Catholic won the points in the paint battle 24-18 and held a nine-rebound advantage for the contest. One of the 10-best three-point shooting teams in the country, the Cardinals stayed right around their season average, knocking down 39.3% of their shots from distance in the victory.
Catholic will host Scranton for a Landmark Conference doubleheader on Friday evening. The men's game will tip at 5 p.m. and their will be free pizza for students and prizes to be won.
