Saints crush Hawks to continue perfect start

By Jacob Marrocco
Posted 1/17/17

The Bishop Hendricken basketball team is at a pivotal juncture in its season. The Hawks were off to a 5-1 start and seemingly had left their disappointing, home blowout loss to North Kingstown in the rearview

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Saints crush Hawks to continue perfect start

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The Bishop Hendricken basketball team is at a pivotal juncture in its season.

The Hawks were off to a 5-1 start and seemingly had left their disappointing, home blowout loss to North Kingstown in the rearview mirror. That is, until they soared into Alumni Hall in Pawtucket to face off with undefeated Saint Ray’s.

The Saints (7-0) showed why they are the prohibitive favorite to claim the state title this year. They took a 38-16 lead into halftime against the reigning Rhode Island champions before cruising to a 71-46 victory.

“We didn’t battle,” Hendricken head coach Jamal Gomes said. “I’m very disappointed in my team. I’m disappointed at the fight, at the lack of fight, and the lack of toughness. If we play like that against good teams, you go down. I just talked to them in the locker room, if we don’t figure that out, it’s not going to be a successful season.”

Peter Wilson lit Hendricken up during the opening half, connecting from all over the court to the tune of 20 points. The Hawks had it close in the early going, trailing 13-7, but Wilson took over and helped put it out of reach.

He drove to the cup for an and-1 before draining a 3-pointer on the next possession to pad the lead at 18-7. Willie Washington finished his own old-fashioned 3-point play to extend the advantage out to 23-7.

“St. Ray’s is a good team, they’re the best team we’ve played so far,” Gomes said. “Very athletic, they can score from different parts on the floor. They mixed up their defenses on us. I think they’re going to have a strong season.”

Hendricken trailed 30-10 with just a few minutes to go until the break, and a 6-0 run helped it show a little life. Justin Mazzulla and Isaiah Mylers both connected on buckets to cut the deficit to 14.

Just as the momentum seemed to shift a bit, Wilson drained any hope out of Hendricken in a hurry. Steven Lora buried a shot from beyond the arc, followed by Wilson’s personal 5-point burst. His layup just before the buzzer to make it 38-16 essentially sealed the win.

Gomes showed displeasure with his team’s lack of “heart,” which he said allowed too many second-chance opportunities for the Saints down low. They took advantage, as Washington and center Trevante Jones combined for 18 points in the post after the intermission.

“If you have will and you have toughness and you have resiliency, you’re not going to let someone have two, three, four rebounds on you,” Gomes said. “You don’t have heart and fight, you’re going to lose to good teams. That was not Hendricken basketball tonight. We had guys that were afraid. We had guys that didn’t battle.”

The Hawks would trail by fewer than 20 points only once during the rest of the game, after Nick Mueller got the score to 57-38 with 4:12 remaining. Hendricken struggled to produce much outside of Mazzulla, who had a team-high 22.

Mueller and Jalen Watson both had eight, but Mylers only posted four and Bobby Fiorito was held scoreless.

The path ahead doesn’t get much easier for Hendricken as it continues its tour of Division I-North. The Hawks host La Salle (3-4) tonight at 7 p.m. before taking to the road against Mount Pleasant (5-2) on Friday night.

Those two contests can go a long way in shaping the Hawks, especially heading into a rematch next Wednesday against subdivision rival North Kingstown.

“It’s an inner-toughness and an inner-resiliency,” Gomes said of how his team can find more intensity. “I think we can talk about it, we can practice it, [but] I think it has to come from within. It’s not the beginning of the season. We’ve played half a season. We have some inner-soul-searching that we have to do. I’m confident we’ll figure it out.”

“It’s inside,” he said, pounding his heart.

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