Catholic, La Crosse get big comebacks

More news about: Catholic | UW-La Crosse
Mar 14, 2025
Dan Buckley was one of three Cardinals who had a huge night, as he and Brian Herbert combined for 41 points after halftime in the win vs. Roanoke.
Photo by Pete Meshanic, d3photography.com
 

Catholic came from 19 points down in the second half, while UW-La Crosse rallied from 16 points down and the Cardinals and Eagles kept their teams in the NCAA Tournament for another night, as Catholic defeated Roanoke in overtime and UW-La Crosse knocked off Illinois Wesleyan. Meanwhile, WashU got the better of Wisconsin Lutheran again in the teams' rematch, and the three No. 1 seeds all advanced, handily.

Catholic started the day off with a bang, as the Cardinals rallied from 19 points down to force overtime, then went on to defeat Roanoke 95-91. CJ Ruoff shot 6-for-11 from three-point range and was 10-for-13 from the foul line, including his last three in the overtime to help the Cardinals get past Roanoke. Ruoff finished with 36 points, while Brian Herbert added 21 and Dan Buckley scored 20. The three combined to go 11-for-22 from three-point range.

The Cardinals trailed by four points after 1:37 of overtime, but a big basket from Herbert with 3:08 to play in the extra period, sparked a 15-7 Catholic run to finish the game. Buckley tied the contest at the charity stripe with 2:42 to play before hitting the bucket to put the Cardinals ahead less than a minute later. It was the only time the lead changed the entire game. After an offensive foul on Gavin O'Malley, Herbert knocked down a corner three, putting Catholic ahead 89-84 and sending the Cardinal bench into a frenzy. Roanoke would pull within two points with 18 seconds left, but Ruoff got the job done at the free throw line to help Catholic close it out.

"Ironically, we went smaller, because we felt like we needed to score more," said Catholic U. coach Aaron Kelly. "I thought for sure we would give up more points because of it, but it worked in our favor defensively. I do think some of their missed shots were a result of fatigue."

UW-La Crosse struggled early in the second half in front of an announced crowd of 1,492 fans in Mitchell Hall, as the Eagles (25-5) started the second half 2-for-11 from the floor, and fell behind 48-32. But UWL, the No. 2 seed, went 12-for-17 the rest of the way and scored eight consecutive points in the final minute-plus of the game to pull away to a 72-65 win against No. 3-seeded Illinois Wesleyan. JJ Paider had a game-high 21 points and Dustin Derousseau added 20 in the win, including an exclamation point breakaway slam in the closing seconds.

"I've been here three years, that's the most energy I've seen in Mitchell Hall, and that's because of these guys here (in the postgame news conference) and the 14 guys downstairs. That's college basketball at its finest," UW-La Crosse JT Gritzmacher said after the game. It was the best game I've ever played. I've never seen Mitchell Hall like that," JJ Paider added.

Wisconsin Lutheran came within one shot of sending an NCAA Tournament game into overtime against Washington U. for the second year in a row, but the Bears defended the inbounds play well and the Warriors never got a good look at the basket, allowing WashU to hold on and win, 59-56. With two fouls to give, the Bears (22-6) elected to interrupt the flow and make WLC inbounds the ball from the sideline with 6.4 seconds left. Hayden Doyle was able to clog up traffic and the Warriors (27-4) never had a shot. 

Hayden Doyle scored a game-high 16 points on just 6-for-16 shooting for the Bears, but hit a huge bucket to put his team up up 57-53 with 29 seconds left, just a few minutes after Wash U got unstuck after being on 47 points for five minutes and 14 seconds. Wisconsin Lutheran, whose five starters all came back to try to better last year's one-and-done trip to the NCAA Tournament, got as far as the Sweet 16 on the strength of those starters. They played all by 10 of the 200 minutes available in the game, and scored 54 of the 56 points, led by Ryan Broeckel, Jacob Stoltz and Grayson Goetz with 13 apiece.

Zack Blue scored a career-high 31 points, and the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team nearly made a historic comeback in the final minutes, but Blue's three-point attempt in the closing seconds fell short, as did a Mary Washington putback attempt, and the battle ot the Eagles went to Emory, 80-78. Mary Washington closes the season with a 15-15 mark after an incredible run to the Sweet 16. Arter leading scorer Kye Robinson fouled out, Mary Washington made an impressive run. Trailing by 12 with 2:19 on the clock, Blue hit a pair of free throws and a three pointer to get UMW to within 79-72, and another pair of Blue free throws and a jumper from sophomore Jay Randall cut the margin to 79-76 wih 37 seconds left. But Ben Pearce managed to make one of two foul shots, ending a 3:14 scoring drought, giving Emory just enough to hold on at the end. Pearce led Emory with 27, while Jair Knight added 25.

Redlands rolled out to a 26-point lead with eight minutes gone in the second half, as Jake Hlywiak hit a three-pointer to give the Bulldogs a 66-40 lead. Hampden-Sydney put a run together and got as close as eight, 75-68 with 2:44 left, but Redlands scored eight of its last 12 to put the game away and win, 83-72. It's the first trip to the Elite Eight for the Bulldogs in the history of the program. Kendrick Currey scored a team-high 15 points, while Chozen Amadi added 14, Omari Ferguson 13 and Dayvon Gates added 12 off the bench for Redlands, which improved to 25-4. Hampden-Sydney (23-6) turned the ball over 17 times in the first 28 minutes, but just five times the rest of the way.

No. 1 NYU and No. 4 Trinity (Conn.) ended the Cinderella runs of Hardin-Simmons and Western New England emphatically, as the Violets rolled over No. 12 seed Hardin-Simmons 91-59 and the Bantams roared past No. 10 seed Western New England 79-42. Catholic, a 9-seed, is the lowest remaining seed in the tournament. Tristan How shot 8-for-9 from the floor for NYU (27-1) en route to a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebouds, while Austin Brewer and Will Bartoszek shot a combined 2-for-20 for Hardin-Simmons (20-10). The third remaining top seed, Wesleyan, cruised to a 66-50 win against No. 4 seeded WPI. Wesleyan held WPI to 3-for-20 shooting from three-point range and outrebounded the Engineers, 46-25. Nicky Johnson and Ben Lyttle each scored 12 points, while Johnson added six assts and Lyttle had 10 rebounds.