WASHINGTON, D.C. - For the second time this season, Catholic men's basketball reached the century mark, defeating Scranton 108-76 on Friday night.
Jesse Hafemeister scored 23 points in just 22 minutes to lead four Cardinals with at least 10 points in the victory.
Sean Neylon posted his second 20-plus point effort of the year, scoring 20 points on just eight shots while
Tommy Kelly (12) and
Enzo Sechi (10) also reached double figures. Sechi grabbed nine rebounds and added four assists in the win.
14 different players scored and nine different players made a three-pointer as Catholic shot a blistering 16-31 from distance, improving their season mark to 40.5 percent from beyond the arc.
Aaron Kelly's team has now shot 50 percent or better from three-point land in four different games this season.
Catholic jumped out to a 14-point halftime lead, scoring 50 first-half points led by Neylon's 15. Both teams were red-hot early on as a Neylon jumper in the paint made it 14-11 Cardinals just 3:32 into the contest. Scranton was within a bucket as just under 10 minutes into the first half, but a quick 7-0 spurt put Catholic ahead 31-22 with 7:58 to play in the half.
Brian Herbert pushed Catholic's lead into double digits with a bucket at the 6:28 mark before it reached 14 points after a
Jake Timby three with 2:12 left to play. Cameron Khoza knocked down a three for Scranton, but
Dan Buckley answered with a triple 19 seconds later. Sechi scored the final bucket of the half for Catholic with 25 seconds left on the clock, but Colin Merriman beat the buzzer for Scranton to pull the deficit back to 14 at the half.
The Cardinals managed to be even better offensively in the second half, scoring 58 points to reach a season-best with 108. The lead reached 20 for the first time after a Hafemeister three-pointer with 15:03 remaining in the contest. Catholic pushed it to 28 at 72-44 after a 7-0 run as Sechi laid it up and in with 13:02 left to play. The lead stayed in the 20's before
CJ Ruoff pushed the advantage to 30 points for the first time with 6:47 left. The Cardinals closed out a 32-point win as
Owen Moynihan hit his first three of the season with the shot clock winding out in the final minute.
BY THE NUMBERS
- Catholic's 108 points are the most since it scored 111 versus Mt. Aloysius in 2011. This is the second time this season (105 vs. Lycoming) that Catholic has reached the century mark and the eighth time in the last decade.
- Hafemeister has been tremendous after returning from a one-game absence. The Cardinals' leading scorer has scored at least 20 points in each of his last three games. Hafemeister continues to work his way up the all-time scoring list, now vaulting into the top 20 with 1,213 points. He takes over possession of 19th place, passing Jeremy Borys ('97). He also passes Kevin Dziwulski ('78) and Pat Buckley ('97).
- With 12 points tonight, Kelly continues his push for 1,000 career points, now sitting at 878 as he averages 12.9 points per game this season.
- The Cardinals seven-game winning streak has seen them defeat their opponents by an average margin of 24.1 points per contest.
- The 32-point victory is Catholic's largest victory over the Royals in the Landmark Conference era (dating back to 2007-08). Catholic's previous largest victory was by 21 points last season.
Catholic returns to action on Wednesday, making the short trip to Goucher to take on former assistant coach Justin Klingman and the Gophers.