February 23, 2024
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The men's basketball team is celebrating a berth in the Landmark Conference Championship. (Photo courtesy of Cardinal Athletics)

The DuFour Center will host both the men's and women's teams Landmark Conference Championship games this Saturday.

The men will tipoff at 2 p.m. against Susquehanna as they look to bring home their first league title in eight years.

The top-seeded Catholic men's basketball team advanced to its first Landmark Conference Championship game since 2016 with a 93-88 overtime victory over Wilkes in front of a packed DuFour Center crowd on Thursday night. The Cardinals will face Susquehanna on Saturday afternoon for a Landmark Championship and an automatic berth into the 2024 NCAA Tournament. 

Now 23-3, the men have matched the 2014-15 team for the most wins in the last decade. A win on Saturday would give Catholic its third Landmark Conference title and most wins since going 25-4 in 2012-13. 

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The women's basketball team gets a chance at the Landmark Conference title, while also avenging its only loss of the season. (Catholic University/Patrick G. Ryan)

Following the men's game, the Catholic women's team will host Scranton at 4 p.m. in the Landmark Championship as it looks to claim the conference title for the first time since 2015.

To advance to the championship game, the women's team beat Susquehanna on Thursday, 83-70. 

A monster performance from Anna Scoblick powered the Cardinals past the River Hawks in a game that was tight throughout. No. 10 Catholic held a four-point advantage at halftime before a 7-2 run to open the second half forced a Susquehanna timeout. Catholic made the next two shots out of the timeout to extend the lead to 13.

In the championship, Catholic will face a Scranton program that is a regular foe. The two teams have met in the conference championship game seven times in the last 10 seasons. Scranton has won the last five meetings in the title game with Catholic's last win coming 52-51 in the 2014-15 championship game. Catholic has not hosted the final since 2016-17.

The matchup with No. 7 Scranton is massive. The Cardinals and the Royals split the regular season series after Catholic produced a massive fourth-quarter comeback to take down Scranton in overtime earlier this season on Franny Murray Court. The Royals got payback with a five-point win in Scranton.

It was Catholic's lone loss this season, as the Cardinals stand at 25-1 on the season.