MEDFORD, Mass.  – The Catholic men's basketball team traveled to Tufts to take on Western Connecticut in the First Round of the DIII NCAA Tournament, in the first ever meeting between the two programs, on Friday afternoon. The Cardinals were able to sustain a second half rally from the Wolves, making the needed plays in the final minutes of the action, to come away with a 71-69 victory to advance to the Second Round of the tournament.

After both teams felt each other out in the first five minutes, Brian Herbert came in and immediately knocked down a triple on back-to-back possessions, followed by a three from Googie Seidman as well to get the offense going for the Cardinals. Catholic opened up a double-digit advantage with four minutes to go in the half by going on a 15-5 run that was capped off with another make from beyond the arc from CJ Ruoff. 10 of the Cardinals points during the run came from inside the lane as Michael Dankert, Chris Rubayo and Jamie Ntiamoah attacked the offensive glass to help build the lead. The lead grew to as large as 12 after Rubayo came up with a tip in put back but West Conn knocked down a jump shot in their last possession of the half to send Catholic into the break with a 31-22 lead.

Dankert, Seidman and Rubayo each hit shots coming out of the half to open the Cardinals largest lead of the day of 14 in the early stages of the second half before the Wolves started to chip away at the deficit. West Conn proceeded to go on a 14-5 over a four minute stretch to make it a 45-41 ballgame but Matthew Gorman slowed the run down by hitting a three to give Catholic some momentum back. The Wolves pulled back within three with 6:45 remaining and the Cardinals were able to answer the bell once again as Herbert came up with four consecutive points to once again take a seven point advantage. Ruoff and Seidman went on to make two huge threes on consecutive possessions to have the game in Catholic's grasp with a 63-54 lead with 3:18 left in regulation.

West Conn once again were knocking on the door after trimming the deficit to three with 1:18 left, but Catholic attacked the boards on their next possession with three offensive rebounds to set up a chance from deep for Ruoff, who knocked it down with 38 ticks left on the clock to give it a 67-61 lead. The Wolves had a chance to make a pair of free throws to tie the game with just 1.5 second remaining but the first one was off the mark and the Cardinals held on to a 71-69 victory to improve to 20-7 on the season.

As a team, the Cardinals shot 11-for-22 from beyond the arc, the fourth-best three-point percentage by the team in a game this season. Catholic also came up with 15 offensive rebounds in total in the contest and turned those opportunities into 11 second chance points.

Herbert led the way in scoring for Catholic in the win with 17 while shooting 6-for-12 from the field with a pair of makes from downtown. Seidman finished behind him with 14 points while also coming up with four steals on the defensive end. Dankert recorded the first double-double of his career, finishing with 10 points and a team-leading 11 rebounds. He is the first freshman for the program to record a double-double in an NCAA Tournament game since at least the 2006-07 season. 

Of Note

• With his 17 point performance in the game, Herbert moved into 22nd all-time on the program's all-time scoring list. The senior now sits at 1,202 points for his career and is just 10 points shy of moving into the top 20 on the program's scoring list.
• The Cardinals improved their record to 21-15 all-time in the NCAA Tournament with the victory over the Wolves on Friday. The program has won five games in the dance over the past three seasons, the best stretch in team history since the team won 12 games from 1997-98-2001-02 seasons.
• The win marked the fourth consecutive season under head coach Aaron Kelly that Catholic has won 20 or more games in a season, the most consecutive seasons of 20+ wins the program has had since Mike Lonergan and Steve Howes combined for 10 consecutive such seasons in the late 90's and early 2000's. 

The Cardinals will wait to see who their opponent will be in the Second Round of the Tournament between Tufts and Penn State-Harrisburg on Saturday, March 7 at 6 pm at Cousens Gymnasium.