BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The Catholic men's basketball team looked to continue its winning ways in Landmark play in a road contest against Moravian on Wednesday afternoon. Despite falling behind by double digits in the first half, the Cardinals remained composed and rallied back to take the lead going into the second half, which they held onto for the remainder of the contest to knock off the Greyhounds, 90-80.
The bench helped the Cardinals overcome a slow start offensively in the first half with 21 points coming from the reserves to help them take a 40-35 lead into the halftime break.
Ryan Pegg played a big role offensively for Catholic in the opening 20 minutes, scoring 10 points while going 4-for-4 at the charity stripe. The Greyhounds were able to open up a 32-20 lead with seven minutes remaining in the half, but the Cardinals slowly chipped away and kept the Greyhounds off the score board for the next six minutes.
A 14-0 run for Catholic gave it its first lead of the ballgame capped off by a layup from
CJ Ruoff to make it 34-32. Pegg and
Matthew Gorman helped the Cardinals extend the lead to five going into halftime as they both knocked down triples on the final two possessions of the half.
The Cardinals found their rhythm offensively in the second half, shooting 20-for-34 (59 percent) as a team, helping them to continue building on the lead. Despite Moravian converting from deep eight times in the second half, Catholic continued to have answers and earned their largest lead of the game of 14 with 3:19 left in regulation.
Charley Hepting was dominant in the paint throughout the half, scoring 14 points to help lead the Cardinals to a 10-point victory.
The win improved Catholic's record to 9-3 on the season and 5-0 in Landmark conference matchups, currently sitting as the only unbeaten team in the conference through the early portion of the conference schedule. The Cardinals reached 90+ points for the third time this season during the win.
Fresh off eclipsing 1,000 points last time out,
Brian Herbert led the team in scoring with 22 points while also pulling down five rebounds. Hepting's second half outburst led him to a career-high 19 points while also coming down with five boards. Ruoff and Pegg also finished in double figures in points with 12 and 10 respectively.
The Cardinals are back in action on Sunday, January 11 when they take on Drew in a re-match of last season's Landmark Conference championship. The game is set to start at 12 pm at The Palestra.
