So that's what championship basketball looks like.

The first 11 minutes of the first half of Tuesday's Division I quarterfinal against South Kingstown won't end up on the Bishop Hendricken boys basketball team's season highlight tape, but the next seven minutes was a perfect example of how to take an underdog's dreams and crush them with your bare hands and make everyone watching realize you're the team to beat.

Hendricken got caught up playing a slow-paced, half-court game, exactly what the Rebels wanted, when all of a sudden it woke from a slumber, turned the game into a track meet and a one-point lead with 5:14 left in the first half turned into an eight-point lead at the break, a 16-point lead 3:39 into the second half and got as big as 22 before the Hawks finished off SK, 57-40, advancing to Friday's D-I semifinal.

“We weren't playing our game we were playing their game,” said Hendricken's T.J. Weeks, who scored 10 of his 16 points in the second half. “Once we started playing our game, we got our lead.”

It was all so casual and happened so fast by the time Hendricken – which plays Mount Pleasant Friday at 6 p.m. at CCRI-Warwick – took a 51-29 lead with 4:45 left, you forgot that at one point it looked like it was going to be a grind.

So what changed?

For one, the Hawks started playing transitional basketball. If they weren't forcing turnovers with their frustrating press, they were whipping the ball up court following an SK miss and getting to the basket on the move.

“Our goal was to kind of create tempo, force tempo and play at a high speed,” Hendricken coach Jamal Gomes said. “I thought South Kingstown, for the first 12 minutes, was able to play at their speed, get it at the half court, really clog the lanes on Justin [Mazzulla] and T.J. Then when we turned it up on defense we wore them down a little bit. We were able to get buckets in transition and that fueled the halfcourt offense.”

Buckets came in bunches. Up 16-15, Hendricken closed the final five minutes of the first half outscoring the Rebels, 12-5, the final basket on a strong drive to the hoop by Justin Mazzulla with four seconds left.

Hendricken opened the second half with an 8-0 run in 3:29 on three layups – one from Angel Sanchez, Weeks and Mazzulla – and two free throws from Weeks. Up 43-27, Isaiah Mylers drove the stake into the Rebels' hearts with a fast-break dunk that ignited the home crowd and then hammered the stake through SK's souls with a two-hander that made it 47-29 with 6:40 left in the game.

“It was a clean bang,” said Weeks of the first slam. “It was a clean dunk and it definitely got us pumped up.”

The first-half problems were two-fold; Hendricken let South Kingstown dictate pace. The Rebels weren't trying to run the Hawks out of the gym. They were content with smart, controlled possessions that led to good shots.

It was working gloriously for SK and when an underdog gets control, that's when you see favored teams start to crumble. They'll play tight, or nervous, or turn on each other and next thing you know it's a close game late and the upset is still on the table.

Hendricken avoided that by staying calm and doing what it does best – being the best team in the state. The Hawks’ demeanor when they were struggling was the same when they were running roughshod on South Kingstown in the second half. They made it look so effortless, like they weren't even trying.

“We're really working to the best of our potential,” said Mazzulla, who led the team with 18 points. “It might seem that way, but we're still working as hard as possible. I wouldn't say it's easy.”

Was it the best basketball the Hawks have played or will play this season? As a whole, no. Not even close.

But that seven-minute rush of turning a close game into a rout and making sure the game never got within shouting distance is exactly what Hendricken wants as it tries to finish off the Division I Tournament before getting ready for the big one next week.

“We have to remember the first 10 minutes because it could still happen to us next week,” Weeks said. “We have to work on these games to improve us for next week.”

“We're going for state titles, not divisional titles,” Gomes said. “We're really using this week to help us prepare for next week. That's the big tournament. This here, we're trying to tweak and tighten the screws so we're playing our best for that state tournament.”