By ALEX SPONSELLER After pulling off an overtime win over rival La Salle in Division I Semifinals, the Bishop Hendricken basketball team needed to pull out another OT victory in the championship against Classical.

The Hawks did just that, rolling in the extra four minutes and taking home the 60-51 win for their second straight DI title.

“It’s preparation, that’s what we preach every day at practice. We’re always going over end of game situations and schemes. We have to play our game and make our free throws. It all comes down to us playing together and loving one another and that was the difference in the final few minutes,” said Hendricken’s David Lynch of the team’s overtime success, as the team went 3-0 in OT throughout the year.

The Hawks led for the majority of the second half and were ahead by six points in the final three minutes. However, the Purple came up with big shots in the final exchanges to force the extra period.

Although Classical carried the momentum heading into overtime, you would never know it as the Hawks played shutout basketball and outscored the opposition in 9-0 to get the win.

“It shows the toughness, the will power and the love that our guys have for each other. We knew it was going to be a tight game, Classical is a great team, very well coached, we knew it was going to come down to the very end. But we said, we had to play 32 minutes strong or 36 if it goes to overtime, and our guys did that. I am so proud of this group of young men, they were a true family, in a COVID year, it was a beautiful thing,” said Hendricken coach Jamal Gomes.

Azmar Abdullah led Hendricken with 16 points while Cam Hughes scored 11 and Jack Graham and Justin Perez each added nine.

Chemistry was the key to the team’s ability to put it all together late in games, according to Gomes.

“We preach toughness, resilience all season long. It’s the resilience. We talked about it before this game that it was going to come down to our ability to come together with love for one another to give ourselves an opportunity to win. In the overtime, our guys played fantastic. Our guys came ready to play today,” said Gomes.

Lynch was also excited to get the win during the pandemic.

“It’s awesome. We have been working so hard and we haven’t been able to do some of the things we usually do, but we got to be where we wanted to be which is an unbelievable feeling to have with your friends,” Lynch said.

The Hawks also remembered last year’s senior class which had its final season cut short. Gomes and his staff made sure to honor the kids that didn’t get a chance to finish the job.

“For our seniors last year and even the seniors this year, their seasons got cut short so we were never able to see how far they could go. We said going into the season this year that we would play for our seniors last year,” said Gomes. “To be able to do that, the love they had for one another, the respect they had for one another, the hard work they put in every single day at practice. It was beautiful.”