WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - Sean Neylon scored a Catholic career-high 28 points to lead the Cardinals to a 78-72 victory on the road at Wilkes on Saturday afternoon. 

Catholic built an 11-point first-half lead with 8:02 to play in the first half as Neylon grabbed an offensive rebound before canning a three. Wilkes would trim the gap down to four at the 3:56 mark, but Neylon connected once more from distance to make it a 35-28 game with 3:38 to play in the first. Wilkes would tie the contest at 35 with a 7-0 run, but a Googie Seidman free throw gave Catholic a one-point halftime lead. 

Neylon opened the second half with back-to-back threes, pushing Catholic back ahead by seven rapidly. The lead reached double digits with 17:15 to play as Neylon made his third triple of the half to give the Cardinals a 48-38 lead. 

Catholic led by as many as 11 with 14:05 remaining, but a 10-0 run pulled the Colonels back within one on a layup from Lucas Lesko with 7:15 to play. Wilkes found itself in the lead with 5:21 left in regulation as Jack Argento scored off a Joey Zvorsky feed. 

Trailing 58-57, Neylon scored five of the team's next seven points to give the Cardinals a 64-60 advantage with 2:33 to play. With less than two minutes left, a CJ Ruoff three-point play extended the lead to seven, but Argento brought it right back to four with a make from deep. 

Brian Herbert scored to push the lead back to six and Catholic proceeded to make nine of its 12 free throws down the stretch to pull out a six-point victory. 

Herbert was the second-leading scorer for Catholic with 14 points, adding six rebounds as well. Ruoff (11) as well as Dan Buckley (10) also reached double figures. 

Lesko scored 17 for the Colonels, but Catholic held him to just 6-18 from the field. The Cardinals once again had a strong day from the field, shooting 47 percent from the floor and 50 percent from deep. Neylon's seven makes from deep give him 20 for the year in just five games and 116 for his Catholic career. 

The Cardinals will make the short trip to Marymount (Va.) on Tuesday before the Thanksgiving break.