WASHINGTON, D.C.  – The Catholic men's basketball team had an opportunity to lock up the top seed in the conference tournament with a victory over Elizabethtown on Wednesday night. In a game where the deficit was never in double digits for either team, the Cardinals came up with the big plays down the stretch to edge out a 71-68 win over the Blue Jays to clinch home court advantage throughout the conference tournament. 

The Cardinals opened the game up shooting the ball well from deep with CJ Ruoff making a pair of threes and Matthew Gorman adding another to give Catholic a 15-8 lead in the opening seven minutes of the game. Elizabethtown took its first lead of the contest, 24-22, with just under six minutes to go in the half but Catholic responded accordingly by outscoring the Blue Jays 15-6 over the final stretch of the half to take a 37-30 lead into halftime. Over the run, Gorman and Michael Dankert each led the offense with five points and Jamie Ntiamoah also added four. The Cardinals went the entirety of the opening 20 minutes without committing a turnover.

Catholic had some struggles offensively coming out of the second half and did not record a field goal for the first five minutes, which allowed a 13-1 Elizabethtown run to take a 43-38 lead. Samuel Alexandre came in off the bench and provided a spark for the Cardinals by knocking down a three and driving in for a layup to tie things back up at 47. Minutes later, Catholic scored in three straight possessions with buckets from Ruoff, Dankert and Peter Gellene to grab the lead back at 55-52. The Blue Jays tied things up at 62 with just three minutes left to play, but Ntiamoah came up with a big layup on a dish from Gellene to put the Cardinals back on top.

As he has done throughout the season, Ruoff came up with the biggest shot of the evening when he drilled a three with 2:35 remaining to give Catholic a two possession advantage. Ntiamoah also came up with a clutch put back off a missed free throw with 22 ticks left on the clock to put the Cardinals on top 70-66. Catholic followed up with a stop on the defensive end and made a free throw to close out a 71-68 win.

The victory improved the Cardinals to 17-6 (14-3) on the season and they have now won nine straight matchups against the Blue Jays. Catholic locked up the top seed in the Landmark tournament for the second time in the past three seasons.

Ruoff led the way with 20 points, marking his 12th game of 20 or more points this season, and added three assists. Ruoff currently leads the team with 469 points in the 2025-26 campaign.

Hepting and Ntiamoah each recorded double-doubles, as Hepting finished with 13 points and 10 rebounds while Ntiamoah posted 12 points and 12 boards. Hepting also tallied three blocks against the Blue Jays.

Dankert was efficient offensively, going 3-for-3 from the field to score seven points, and made a strong impact defensively with eight rebounds. Gorman made his mark as a playmaker, dishing out six assists, followed by Gellene with four. Gorman also added eight points for the Cardinals.

The regular season finale for the Cardinals will take place on Saturday, February 21 against Scranton which will also be senior day for the program.