There hasn’t been too many times over the past year that the defending state champion Hawks have trailed in a game, particularly at home.

Friday night was one of those rare times, as the Bishop Hendricken basketball team trailed Classical, 26-23, at halftime.

Fortunately for Hendricken, it was able to stave-off the Purple’s upset bid, using a 9-0 run late in the second half to grind out a 55-49 win.

Win the win, the Hawks remained unbeaten and in first place in Division I, with a 7-0 record. The only other undefeated team in D-I is Barrington at 6-0. The Hawks and the Eagles will meet on February 8 at Brown University.

Although Hendricken barely escaped Pepin Gymnasium with a win, head coach Jamal Gomes admitted that playing in games like that will be beneficial in the long-run.

“It’s definitely good for us,” Gomes said when asked if playing in closely-contested games will be good for his team down the road. “Classical played tremendous tonight. They played tough, hard and made shots. Their speed and quickness kind of got to us at times. I don’t think we played a particularly good game and we had some foul trouble early.”

The game was back-and-forth from the start, as the Hawks gradually began to turn the ball over and commit uncharacteristic fouls.

As a result, three of Hendricken’s best players – Kyle Henseler, Ira Lough and Justin Mazzulla – were forced to come out of the game.

“I pulled them out with two (fouls) because I wanted to see how our other guys would respond,” Gomes said.

The Hawks were able to hold their own for a while, but the Purple were finally able to grab a 19-18 lead with five minutes remaining in the first half, on a three-pointer from Jake Lamar.

An and-one by Classical’s Earnest Umoh just over two minutes later increased its lead to 23-18.

A Dimitri Rosa three-pointer cut Hendricken’s deficit to 23-21, but the Purple were able to get the points back on the other end, when Will Leviton made his first free throw and missed the second. On the miss, Jamari Johnson cleaned up an offensive rebound and got an easy layup, putting the Purple up, 26-21.

“They killed us on the glass,” Gomes said. “I keep telling our guys to be championship-caliber, we have to rebound. I just think, athletically, he (Johnson) was better than all of our guys. But we were able to battle, hang in there and get the win.”

Despite Hendricken’s 26-23 deficit at the half, it was doing some good things early before it got into foul trouble. Lough had a team-high seven points in the opening half before exiting with the two fouls.

Coming out of the locker room, the Hawks looked like a completely different team, competing on both ends of the floor.

“It was just the matter of competing and playing like we’re capable of playing,” Gomes said of his team’s start to the second half.

Dan Flaherty tied the game, 26-26, on the first possession of the half, earning an and-one and draining the free throw.

From there, the Hawks were able to force a pair of turnovers and get easy transition buckets, making a 7-0 run over the first minute of the second half to take a 30-26 lead.

Classical wasn’t ready to go away quietly, however, as it was able to regain the lead with 5:35 remaining on a three-pointer by Bryce Daily, giving the Purple a 41-39 lead.

Needing a spark, Gomes then decided to go to the bench and bring in forward Adam Lavallee, a senior who seldom sees playing time.

That proved to be the difference in the game, as Lavallee scored five of Hendricken’s nine points in a 9-0 run that gave the Hawks a 48-41 lead. Lavallee also took a key charge in the paint in the final minutes as well.

“Lavallee was the player of the game for us today,” Gomes said. “He came in and he battled.”

Mazzulla, despite only scoring three points in the first half, finished with a game-high 12, depositing nine hard-earned points after the break.

“Justin can play better,” Gomes said. “He has to finish his layups – and he knows that. What I love about Justin is that he’s going to come out and compete and play as hard as he can. He’s going to go out there and be our best defender and defend their best player. He’s going to get his points, but I think I can do a better job of putting him in spots where he can be more successful on offense.”

Lough was second on the team with 11 points, while Flaherty had nine and Lavallee scored seven second-half points.

Johnson finished with 12 points for the Purple, while Leviton scored seven of his nine points in the first half.

Hendricken will be back in action on Tuesday night, when it travels to Hope to take on the 5-2 Blue Wave at 7 p.m.

“The first thing on our list to work on is boxing-out and rebounding,” Gomes said. “If you control that, you’ll control tempo and the game. We have some things to work on, but we’ll work on them.”