Whenever Bishop Hendricken and La Salle Academy get together for a sporting event, you know that it will be intense and this past Tuesday night was no exception, as the Hawks defense overwhelmed the Rams en route to an impressive 64-50 win at a sold out Pepin Gym.

The loss was the first for La Salle, who dropped to 3-1 in league play and 6-1 overall, while the Hawks improved to 3-0 in league play and 5-2 overall.

"It was great defense on Hendricken's part," La Salle head coach Eric Simonelli said. “We had plenty of opportunities that we missed and you have to give them credit. You have to make layups and open shots to win games and we did not do that tonight. This is a tough place to play and we were not at our best."

The Hawks jumped out to a 19-13 lead with eight minutes to go in the first half, only to see the Rams go on a 9-0 run and take a 22-19 lead. Justin Mazzulla ended the run with two of his 22 points.

The Hawks finished strong in the first half with a solid run, outscoring La Salle 7-0 in the final minutes with buckets by Ira Lough and Mazzulla, which gave them a 26-22 advantage at halftime.

Hendricken would secure the win in the second half through its intense defense.

“La Salle is a great team and well coached," Hendricken head coach Jamal Gomes said. “They have great team speed and we did not want to get into a track meet with them. We wanted to make sure we got back on defense and make it a 5-on-5 game. La Salle did not have a good shooting night and we rebounded the ball well and controlled the tempo of the game, which was key for us. Overall, at this point in the season it is a good team win and I told our players whether we won or lost this game it was not our season, it is just one step in getting better."

Only four Hendricken players scored in this game, with Mazzulla and Lough scoring 22 points each, while Dan Flaherty added 12 and Dimitri Rosa eight.

“I'm proud of our guys," Gomes said. “I thought Lough and Flaherty did a tremendous job on the glass, along with Mazzulla. Ira has improved tremendously from last year and has worked hard. He is confident and wants to win and succeed. Flaherty also was great tonight, he got us off to a good start, made some jump shots, finished around the basket and rebounded the ball. We have to have balance and we did tonight."

The Hawks extended their lead in the second half thanks to big three-point shots by Rosa and Lough and Mazzulla's dunk with less than a minute to play was the exclamation point, which brought the crowd to its feet. Gomes was pleased with his team, as they played 32 minutes of solid basketball.

“I told our team that we have to put together two full halves of basketball," Gomes said. “We have been playing one strong half and one weak half this season and this is the first time this year we played two strong halves of basketball."

In two weeks, three transfer students will be eligible to play for the Hawks, which Gomes is hoping will make Hendricken an even better team. Trevor Lawton from West Warwick, Alex Dickerman from Masters Regional Academy and Elijah Brown from Moses Brown will provide some depth to Hendricken's roster.

After a game with West Warwick this week, the Hawks will travel to Boston's TD Garden on Saturday to play Malden Catholic in the Good Sports Invitational. The Lancers are undefeated, so this will give the Hawks a chance to end yet another team's perfect season.