Hawks cruise to win over Hope

By RYAN D. MURRAY
Posted 1/8/19

By RYAN D. MURRAY The Bishop Hendricken Hawks blew out the Hope Blue Wave 78-31 on Thursday night at home in Division I basketball. The Hawks were led by Bobby Fiorito, a senior, who finished with 16 points. Also, helping out on offense was Angel

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Hawks cruise to win over Hope

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The Bishop Hendricken Hawks blew out the Hope Blue Wave 78-31 on Thursday night at home in Division I basketball.

The Hawks were led by Bobby Fiorito, a senior, who finished with 16 points. Also, helping out on offense was Angel Sanchez, a junior, who tallied 12 points, and sophomores Sebastian Thomas and Tyriek Weeks, who racked up 10 points each.

Fiorito buried a jump shot for the first points of the game, and then, Hope’s Deandre Lewis answered with a 3-pointer, which gave Hope an early 3-2 lead.

That would be the last time that the Blue Wave would see a lead, however.

Weeks sank a 3-pointer on Hendricken’s next trip down the court and that put Hendricken on top 5-3, and they never looked back.

Weeks’ dagger from beyond the arc, was one of seven Hendricken treys in the first half, which helped the Hawks to a commanding 47-12 advantage heading into halftime.

“We have some guys that can put the ball in the basket,” Hawks head coach Jamal Gomes said. “And, we’ve been working heavily on our shooting in practice. We spend twenty minutes to half an hour every practice just on shooting drills. So, I feel that besides our defense and all the toughness and everything, our ability to put the ball in the basket is going to be very big.”

Hope recorded the first five points of the second half before Hendricken answered with a Sebastian Basilio layup and a Fiorito 3-pointer. The Hawks outscored the Blue Wave 31-19 in the second half on their way to the 78-31 thrashing.

The drubbing may be a little deceiving as Hope was without two of its big-time players in recent transfers Manny Roman and Khalil Rios, who weren’t yet eligible to play.

“The next time we see Hope, they’re going to be a different team,” Gomes said. “Because the two guys that they have that aren’t eligible yet, are very, very, good players.”

Hendricken was without two of its starters as well, in Andrew De Los Santos and big man, Cam Hughes.

“But, I’m proud of our guys,” Gomes said. “We’ve been really trying to focus on coming together as a team. We’re off to a pretty good start, record wise, but up to this point, I didn’t feel that we were quite playing fully together. This was a good step in the right direction. I thought we were sharing the ball, moving the ball, working together. And, that’s going to be the key to our success moving forward is that we do it together. Fourteen guys acting as one. And, I saw that today.”

With Hendricken holding a huge lead, Gomes was able to play some of his bench.

“I haven’t been able to get them the game reps that I would like because many of our games up to this point have been pretty close,” Gomes explained. “So, this was a good opportunity for them to play and battle and score some baskets. So, very happy for them.”   

The Hawks also went on to beat J.E. Burke (Boston, Mass.) 57-47 on Saturday afternoon. Fiorito led the Hawks with 20 points in that contest, while Thomas chipped in 15 points and De Los Santos added 11 in his return.

Hendricken is now 4-0 in D-I and 5-0 overall. The Hawks play next on Wednesday night at home against La Salle.

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