The No. 2 Bishop Hendricken basketball team rolled past No. 7 Lincoln, 69-55, on Tuesday night in the Rhode Island Interscholastic League Open State Tournament. The Hawks will now head to the Ryan Center at the University of Rhode Island to take on No. 3 Classical in the Final Four.

Hendricken jumped out to a 16-2 lead to begin the game and would not let the Lions back in as they dominated on both ends of the floor for 32 minutes.

Sophomore Michael D’Ambra and senior James Caldarella paced Hendricken with 17 points each while Will Cary added 14.

“We practiced hard and we knew we were going to come out strong. We stuck to it and finished strong and got the win,” said D’Ambra.

After losing to No. 1 La Salle in the Division I Championship, the Hawks bounced back to beat Shea in the opening round of the state tournament before taking out Lincoln in the Elite 8. Hendricken is motivated to not only beat Classical on Saturday but is looking for a chance to get revenge on the Rams should they advance on their side of the bracket against Central.

“La Salle got us and we didn’t forget that. We’re going to play with a chip on our shoulder from here on out and we know what we need to do to beat them,” said D’Ambra, who believes tough defense will guide the Hawks past the Purple. “Every game against them is a great game, we need to play hard, play tough and play good defense. We need to play what the coaches give us.”

Hendricken and Classical will tip off at 6 p.m. on Saturday at URI. The two teams split their regular season meetings and the Hawks knocked Classical out of the Division I semifinals. The winner of the game will take on the winner of La Salle-Central on Sunday night with a 6:30 start.