WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Catholic men's basketball team hosted Wilkes on Thursday evening with a trip to the conference title game on the line. The game was tightly played all the way through the midway point of the second half, but a hot shooting spell for the Colonels allowed them to open up a double-digit lead, leading to a 79-70 victory over the Cardinals.
The Colonels opened up a 12-7 lead over the first eight minutes before
CJ Ruoff knocked down back-to-back buckets for the Cardinals and
Googie Seidman knocked down a triple to help the team take a 15-14 lead.
Brian Herbert converted on a driving layup to give Catholic its largest lead of the first half of seven.
Charley Hepting sank a free throw 10 seconds left in the half to keep the lead at seven, but Lucas Lesko cashed in from deep in the final seconds of the half to make it a 36-32 game. Herbert was solid in the first half offensively, leading the Cardinals with 12 points while Hepting and Ruoff pitched in eight and seven points respectively. Catholic was plus 10 on the glass in the first half to help it hold onto the slim lead.
The defining stretch in the game came with 12:15 left in the second half in what was at the time a 50-50 ballgame after a layup from
Peter Gellene. Wilkes proceeded to go on a 16-6 run where the bulk of the scoring came from Lesko as he had 12 points during that run. Wilkes also went 4:25 without missing a shot, going 7-for-7 from the field to grab all the momentum and hold a 66-56 advantage. The closest the Cardinals came to rally back from that point on was seven after a late
Matthew Gorman three, but the Colonels made enough free throws at the end to close out a 79-70 victory to advance to the Landmark championship.
Catholic now sits at 19-7 on the season and are 2-1 against Wilkes all-time in the Landmark Conference tournament.
Herbert and Ruoff both wound up leading the Cardinals in points with 12 apiece while Herbert also pulled down six boards. Hepting also scored in double figures with 10 points and led the team in rebounds with seven. Gorman was also solid off the bench for Catholic with eight points and six rebounds.
The Cardinals will now wait to hear about a berth into the NCAA Tournament on Monday, March 2 at 1 pm. The Selection Show can be watched on NCAA.com
