Catholic
- Nov 22, 2022
- 7 min read
Catholic University Cardinals (5-0) vs. Hood Blazers (2-2)
Sunday, November 20, 2022 @ 2:00 PM
Washington, DC
Franny Murray Court
Battle of DC & Maryland Championship Game
THE SCHOOL
The Catholic University of America is the national university of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. Founded with a charter from Pope Leo XIII in 1887, the school enrolls 5,059 students this semester. Per the university's website, eighty percent of the undergraduate student body is Catholic.
The Cardinals compete in the Landmark Conference (which also includes schools in Maryland, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania) in NCAA Division III. From what I can tell, there are two main highlights in the history of CUA athletics: 1) the men's basketball team won the D-III national championship in 2001;
2) the football team won the second-ever Orange Bowl in 1936. They defeated Ole Miss 20-19. Catholic's football team was a major program (and a fairly good one) until World War II, but struggled after the war and disbanded the program shortly after. They reemerged as a Division III program in the 1970s.
Hood College is a private college in Frederick, Maryland. The Hood Blazers compete in the Middle Atlantic Conferences (MAC), also in Division III. I am hoping to visit Frederick for a Hood game later this season.
This game is part of the Battle for DC & Maryland, an in-season tournament annually featuring Catholic, Hood, St. Mary's (from southern Maryland), and Gallaudet (from down the road in the DC). On Saturday, Hood defeated St. Mary's 63-58 and Catholic beat Gallaudet 73-47 to set up a Blazers vs. Cardinals championship game. I've visited both St. Mary's and Gallaudet before; in fact, the game I saw at St. Mary's was last year's championship game of this tournament. Catholic is the reigning champion.
THE TOWN
Ok, I'm trying something a little different with my map. Placing all the DC city schools on the big map is just going to pile logos on top of each other. Instead, I'll make a special one for DC's teams so you can see where they are. I've also left ones from last year, so still present are American (in Northwest Washington), Gallaudet (a bit northeast of my home icon), and Marymount (just across the river in Arlington).
Catholic is located near the Brookland neighborhood in the northeastern-ish part of the District. I could have driven there but opted to take the Metro instead. The nearest Metro stop to me is Union Station, which is a mere 3 stops from the Brookland-CUA station. This station is just across the street from Catholic's campus, so it was easy for me to get there.
It was one of the first really cold days here in the Capital. The temperature never rose above 40 degrees and a strong wind whipped for much of the morning and early afternoon. The cold did not take away from the beauty of Catholic’s campus, however. There is a clear Roman inspiration to many of the buildings on campus – lots of white, gray, and red with pillars and domes. This includes the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Roman Catholic church in North America. In contrast to Rome, though, the campus is fairly large and the buildings are all rather spaced out. In fact, if you stand in the middle of CUA’s campus, you can’t really see any other part of DC. This makes it feel a little separate from the rest of the city.
The Raymond A. DuFour Athletic Center is the home of CUA’s basketball gym and athletic offices. I take the train to work two days a week, and the RADAC can be seen from the train window. Once you enter the door, a wide hallway opens with the basketball court to your left. The Franny Murray Court (which is actually named after a man) has rows of chairback seats on both sidelines, as well as about three rows along one baseline. The chairs are a bright cardinal color, which immediately catches the eye. Nothing is terribly snazzy about “the Franny” but it’s a nice place.
THE GAME
I assumed I would pick up something for lunch on my walk between the train station and gymnasium. This didn't work; there wasn't much to choose from and what there was was closed. Instead, I thought I'd just get something from the concession stand at the game. I walked in, paid the $7 admission ticket, and came to a sad realization.
There weren't any concessions.
This will happen sometimes at small gyms. I assumed Catholic would have something since this was a tournament, but they didn't really have a spot for it. Instead, I found a vending machine and had the healthy lunch of a cinnamon bun and trail mix. Yum yum.
After walking around campus a little bit, I got to the gym in time to see the consolation game between St. Mary's and Gallaudet. Gallaudet played a fundamentally solid game and kept taking advantage of St. Mary's' miscues. Despite several comeback attempts by St. Mary's, Gallaudet held on to win 64-56.
After the consolation game, Catholic and Hood took the floor for shootaround. Frederick is only about an hour's drive (on a weekend), so there was a strong showing by Hood fans. I'd say the seats were split pretty even Cardinal and Blazer fans, including the very vocal contingent of Catholic fans one row behind me and the very vocal contingent of Hood fans one row in front of me.
~
In 1961, the American Basketball League adopted a three-point line to add excitement to their version of the game. The American Basketball Association implemented a three-point line at its inception in 1967, further advancing the shot's popularity. Shortly after the ABA merged with the NBA, the National Basketball Association adopted the three-point shot in 1979. College conferences implemented the three-pointer at various times, but by 1986 everyone had the ability to shoot threes. In 2009, the NCAA expanded the three-point line by a foot. In 2019, it was expanded by another 15 or so inches. And in 2022, Catholic and Hood forgot there were other kinds of shots, as the first seven made field goals in this game were threes.
These teams like to run at a fast pace and they both want to score quickly. And they did - five minutes in, the score was tied 15-15, putting both teams on pace for 120 points. They were going back-and-forth-and-back-and-forth until the 13:17 mark, when Catholic called a timeout. This let everyone breathe. Everyone except the Hood fans.
Suddenly, as if conducted on cue, many passionate Blazer supporters shouted "THE SCORE IS WRONG!" This caught everyone else off-guard. The scoreboard read HOME 19, AWAY 17, but the Hood fans were under the impression that the scorekeeper awarded two points to the wrong team. Admittedly, I didn't know who was right; they were scoring so quickly it was hard to keep up while taking notes. Attendance was listed at 138, and by my estimation nearly half of those were Blazer fans, so it's possible that a few dozen people were shouting "THE SCORE IS WRONG!" at the referees. And at such a small gym, if you yell "THE SCORE IS WRONG!" enough times, they have no choice but to check. They walked over to the scorer's table, conversed with the scorekeeper and a couple assistant coaches, and decided that the score was - actually - right, much to the chagrin of some angry Hood fans. For the rest of the half, you would still hear the occasional "THE SCORE IS WRONG!"
Anyway, the game continued at a slightly slower pace after the debacle. Both teams' offenses were firing less efficiently and quickly. Finally, with 4:30 remaining in the first half, Hood took the first two-possession lead of the contest, 35-29. They held on despite some quality play from Catholic's #31, Sean Neylon, and led at halftime, 41-38.
Or so I thought. During the half, the officials went back to look at the score, and it turns out those pesky Hood fans (the "THE SCORE IS WRONG!" ones) were right. 2 points were given to the wrong team and Hood actually led 43-36.
After the break, Hood made some key defensive stops and took a ten-point lead with 17 minutes left, 48-38. But, CUA's #0, Dan Buckley, quickly made a three-pointer on the next possession, and his Cardinal teammates took over the game. Over a period of four-and-a-half minutes, Catholic went on a 16-3 run and found themselves leading 54-51. Neylon and #12, Jesse Hafemeister, each made key shots during this stretch. Over the next few minutes, we got the same pace as the first few minutes: quick shooting and frequently changing leads.
I don't like to go too much into basketball strategy in these write-ups. I don't know enough about the finer points to do a good job and I don't think it would be all that interesting. But there's one thing I think is worth talking about.
Offensively, Catholic typically ran a 5 out set, meaning that all of their players usually started a possession out beyond the three-point line. Defensively, Hood typically ran a 2-3 zone, which places two defenders near the top of the three-point arc, while the other three hang out behind them to guard the rim or shots from the corner. Because of Catholic's proclivity to shoot threes, the three interior defenders kept getting drawn further out toward the three-point line. Catholic's #0, Ethan Hinds, tried to exploit this by sneaking toward the rim, where he often stood all by himself for a potential wide open layup. But here's the thing: Catholic's other players would not pass him the ball. I don't know if they didn't see him, or if Hinds is a bad shooter, or if that just wasn't in their gameplan, but as a neutral observer, it was baffling to see an offensive player alone near the basket with his arms in the air... and never getting the ball. Anyway, with about 8 minutes left, the Cardinals finally took advantage by passing to their wide open teammate a couple times, and it worked. They got two easy layups and Hood was forced to alter their defense.
Catholic grinded and grinded until they took an 8 point lead with 4:30 left. Hood cut that to 6 (75-69) one minute later, but you could tell they were running out of steam. Over the last 3:30, Catholic went on one final Blazer-killing run, only giving up 2 points and scoring 8. Hood put up a great effort, but couldn't keep it up for the last few minutes. For the game, Sean Neylon (19 points) and Jesse Hafemiester (20 points) combined to to go 9-20 on three-point shots, as the Cardials extended their season-opening winning streak to 6.
Final: Catholic 83, Hood 71
As the teams were warming up, I immediately noticed something I haven't seen since my days in Nebraska. And this was not a common occurrence in Nebraska, but it did happen every once in a while.
These two teams were almost entirely white.
It doesn't matter and I don't think there's really a reason for it. It's just very noticeable and I thought it was interesting.
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