ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- The Elizabethtown College men's basketball team hung around through the first half, but Catholic pulled away from the Blue Jays during the second half to take home an 89-71 win at Thompson Gymnasium on Wednesday. The game was the Landmark Conference opener for both teams. Austin Finarelli had a game-high 24 points while EJ Finney added 12.

A Finney layup and a three from Reese Ziegler put Elizabethtown ahead 5-0 in the early going. The Jays led by as many as five three different times through the opening four minutes of play.

As the midway point of the first half neared, the game went back and forth with the teams exchanging leads. Six straight shots from the Cardinals and Blue Jays were threes, three from each side. Zuri Harris and Augie Brodie (2) connected from deep as Brodie's second trey of the sequence put EC up by four with 10:09 left in the half.

Catholic held Etown scoreless over the next four minutes as they built up a five-point lead of their own. That was halted on Rance Russo's three to make it 27-25. 

The Cardinals worked to pull away late, but the Jays didn't go away as Ben Stanton got inside for the bucket with 26 seconds left in the first. Catholic led 41-36 at the intermission.

The second half was a different story as CATHU started off 4-for-6 to grow their lead up to 10 points less than three minutes in, 50-40. The Jays started off cold and had trouble regrouping to stay in touch with the Cards.

Justin Green's layup with 13:28 to go made it 62-45. Six consecutive points between Finarelli and Alon Gorham made it an 11-point game with 12:18 remaining, but that's as close as Elizabethtown would get the rest of the way.

Finarelli was 8-for-15 from the floor and 7-for-8 from the foul line for the Jays. Finney had 12 points to go along with six rebounds and four assists.

Elizabethtown will host Lycoming on Saturday, Nov. 23, at 4 p.m.