Men's Basketball Catholic Athletic Communications

Catholic Men's Basketball Concludes Tremendous Season in Sectional Finals

HARTFORD, Conn. - Catholic University's dream run came to an end on Saturday night in the Elite Eight against one of the nation's best teams. Trinity advances to the Final Four with an 86-63 victory. 

The Cardinals came out like wildfire, jumping out to a 14-2 run thanks to baskets from five different players as Sean Neylon knocked down the three to give the Cardinals a 12-point lead. 

Will Dorion responded with a triple 13 seconds later for the Bantams, but Neylon connected again on an assist from Dan Buckley to give Catholic a 17-5 lead with 14:10 remaining in the opening half. Tristan Davis scored on the other end, bringing the Bantams to life as his bucket kick-started a 15-0 spurt. Back-to-back threes from Jared Berry and Sean Macarchuk out of a Catholic timeout pushed the Bantams ahead by one with 11:03 left in the opening half. 

With 8:34 remaining, Jamie Ntiamoah finally ended the drought, draining a pair of free throws to make it a 20-19 Trinity lead. A Buckley pull-up briefly had the Cardinals back on top, 21-20, but Macarchuk connected again from downtown. 

Tied 23-23, the Bantams used a 7-0 run to take a 30-23 edge with 4:11 remaining before a pair of Buckley free throws had the Cardinals trailing by five. After a Henry Vetter bucket, Justin Green drilled his second three of the half, making it a 32-28 game with 3:07 on the clock. 

Trinity took an eight-point lead with less than a minute left in the half, but Buckley converted a rare four-point play, draining a three while drawing Drew Lazarre's second foul of the contest to send the Cardinals into the locker room trailing 38-34.

A CJ Ruoff free throw 90 seconds into the half pulled the Cardinals within three points, but Trinity answered with a 7-2 run, taking a 45-37 lead with 16:46 remaining. The lead grew to 11 with 12:58 left on a pair of Lazarre free throws before a Ruoff mini 5-0 run pulled Catholic within six. 

Macarchuk put an end to the run with his third three of the contest, pushing the Bantams to a 52-43 advantage with 11:36 left to play. Vetter drilled a three to push the lead to 12 before Paul Jordan gave the Bantams their largest lead of the night at 57-43. 

The Bantams controlled the contest over the final 9:30, pushing the lead as high as 22 and never letting it fall back below 11. The Cardinals did use a late 10-4 run to pull within 16 at 77-61, but it was not enough to overcome the nation's fourth-ranked team. 

QUICK HITTERS
  • Green broke Catholic's NCAA Tournament record for rebounds in a game, pulling down 15 boards while contributing 10 points. The record was previously set by Blair Mills versus Gwynedd Mercy in 2004 before Buckley matched it in last year's opening round win versus Worcester State. 
  • Catholic's 25 wins are tied for the third-most in program history, matching the 2023-24 and 2012-13 seasons. The Cardinals won 28 games in 2000-01 and 26 games in 2001-02. 
  • With two three-point makes, Neylon finishes his senior season third on Catholic's all-time single-season three-pointers list with 92, passing Pat Maloney (2000-01). He also ties Pat Satalin ('06) for the fifth most makes in a career with 188. 
  • Before fouling out late in the contest, Buckley capped off a tremendous tournament run with 19 points, five assists, and four rebounds. Buckley averaged 17.5 points in the postseason.