Trailing for almost the entire game, The Catholic University of America men's basketball team came up clutch in the final minutes at Drew on Saturday afternoon to come away with a hard-fought victory, 73-69.

Catholic only held the lead for just over two minutes in the first 35 of the game, bought battled through foul trouble and a strong defensive effort by the Rangers to come away with the win.

The Cardinals have now won 13 of its past 15 games and improve to 16-5 overall and 9-3 in the Landmark conference.

Sophomore forward Jay Howard scored a career-high 28 points to lead the Cardinals, adding seven rebounds, three assists and two steals. Fellow forward Corey Stanford put up his third straight double-double with 12 points and 13 rebounds.

The game started with a 3-all tie, but Drew went on to lead for the remainder of the first half, holding as much as a 11-point advantage.

A 15-0 Catholic run at the end of the first and into the second gave CUA a four-point lead at 41-37, but Drew shot itself back in front two more times to hold the lead with only five minutes remaining. 

Junior guard Louis Khouri came off the bench for a big eight points and seven rebounds, but none were larger than his 3-pointer with 4:41 left that put CUA up 64-62. The Cardinals would not trail again.

CUA knocked down its free throws down the stretch, going 7-of-7 from the charity stripe to secure the win. 

After playing four of its last six games on the road, Catholic will now play its final four contests back inside the DuFour Athletic Center beginning Wednesday night against Goucher.