By ALEX SPONSELLER The No. 3 Bishop Hendricken basketball team cruised to an 81-45 win over No. 11 Central in the Division I Quarterfinals on Tuesday night.

The Hawks came out firing on all cylinders and ended the first half by going on a 25-8 run. The Knights were unable to recover in the second half as Hendricken ran away with the win.

The Hawks were led by Cameron Chinn and Eze Wali with 18 points each. Chinn scored four 3-pointers in the process. David Lynch added 16 points as well.

“It was really important (to come out strong) because we are a team that likes to tire our opponents out with our athleticism and fast speed. Getting off to that strong start was very important,” said Chinn.

In what was arguably the Hawks’ most complete outing of the year, coach Jamal Gomes attributed it to a solid week of practice.

“We played a very strong game today and I’m very proud of our guys. We played tough, we played smart, we played defense, and we played together. Going into this game, it was the first time in two months that we were able to have three practices in a row. The last two months we have been playing games every other day, using practice to install the game plan and get healthy. This week, we were finally able to use practice to improve on the things that we had to do as a team. That helped us out tremendously,” Gomes said.

Hendricken also dominated with its half court defense and controlled the boards throughout the contest. Gomes was encouraged to see his players produce in those areas, which have caused frustration at times during the regular season.

“We knew that going into February, if we were going to make a run then we were going to have to rebound the basketball. Many other games that we lost we were out rebounded, out toughed,” Gomes said. “We have a different make up in our team this year, so we have been working hard on rebounding and our half court defense at practice, and it paid off today.”

The Hawks will next take on No. 2 Classical in Providence. The Purple have had Hendricken’s number this season, dealing the Hawks two losses.

Playing tough basketball will be key in turning the tables this time around, according to Chinn.

“The main thing is to be mentally tough. The last time we faced them we came in scared and came out slow. We know what we can do, if we play mentally and physically tough and play the way we want to, we’ll be fine,” Chinn said.

Gomes added: “Classical is a fantastic team. They are well rounded and very athletic. They have guys that can shoot, that can run, that can rebound, that play tough. We’ve got to play tough. We played them a couple weeks ago and had the deer in the headlights look. They punched us in the mouth and we couldn’t recover. We need to go in there with a defensive mindset, a rebounding mindset. That will give us our best chance win or lose.”