It’s safe to say Bishop Hendricken guard Preston Santos’ wrist injury is healing just fine, and at the right time.

The sophomore led the No. 3 Hawks with a game-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds, one block and one steal off the bench in a 61-44 quarterfinals victory over No. 6 St. Raphael’s on Tuesday night. The last time the two sides tangled, a 64-54 double-overtime win for the Hawks 10 days ago, Santos was sidelined by his wrist injury.

“It’s feeling a lot better, once you ice it, rest it,” Santos said of his wrist. “It’s feeling a good 90 percent right now. It’ll be 100 percent by Friday [for the semifinals]. It’s always good to be back after a minor injury, helping my teammates win. Just want to help my team get to a championship and win it.”

Santos led a three-headed attack for Hendricken, which also saw significant contributions from senior forward Trevor Lawton and junior guard Justin Mazzulla. Lawton had 15 points, six rebounds and two steals, while Mazzulla poured in 16 points with nine rebounds and four steals. Mazzulla surpassed the 1,000-point barrier for his career late in the second half.

“We just gravitate around him,” Santos said of Mazzulla. “He’s a good teammate. When I first played on this team he welcomed me on to it. He’s like an older brother to me, good player. He’s a work horse, man. He just keeps working hard, on and off the court, in school. A nice kid, I’m glad to have him on my team.”

After St. Ray’s closed out the first half on a 15-5 run to cut the deficit down to four, the Hawks came out aggressive after the break, especially on the offensive glass. Mazzulla got the scoring going when he collected his own miss, went back up and got a layup to go, putting Hendricken ahead 32-26.

The Hawks continued their punishment down low as they started to pull away from the Saints. Santos and Mazzulla traded driving layups before Santos used his reach to get a put-back to fall, building the lead out to 43-30.

“I think our strength in this game was getting it close to the rim, attacking the basket, trying to get as many layups, as many shots in the post as possible.” Hendricken head coach Jamal Gomes said. “I think towards the end of the first half we got away from that, and in the second half we went to it. And I thought we did a good job getting to the glass. Preston Santos was phenomenal on the offensive glass with the put-backs. Trevor Lawton, Justin Mazzulla, these guys were really aggressive around the rim.”

The Saints hung around in the second half with help from forward Trevante Jones and guard Peter Wilson. The two combined for 14 of the Saints’ 18 second-half points. Jones didn’t score in the first half after racking up three fouls early on, but had seven in the second half. His final points, coming on an old-fashioned 3-point play, cut the Hawks’ lead down to 43-35.

After that point, though, the Hawks would finish the game on an 18-9 run to help pull away from the Saints.

Lawton got it started when he got a shot to go through, extending the lead back out to double digits. He then stole a pass down the other end and fired a full-court pass to Santos, who threw down an uncontested dunk to give the Hawks a 47-35 advantage.

“He just started coming back to practice three days ago, so I didn’t want to give him too much at once,” Gomes said of his decision to bring in Santos off the bench. “He was the difference in the ball game for us today. His ability to get out in the break and finish with the dunks, his offensive put-back rebounds, were tremendous. When he gets into what we call his ‘kill zone,’ which is the triangle area in front of the paint, he is dangerous.”

The Saints got the lead back down to 8 after a Zaheer Santiago jumper, but Mazzulla answered down the other end when he went up hard and got a lay-in to go off the glass.

Play was stopped temporarily as the 3-year starter was honored for notching his 1,000th point, but for Mazzulla it was more important to finish business on the court.

“It’s a great milestone, [but] I was just worried about the game,” Mazzulla said.

The Hawks wouldn’t have to worry for long. Up 49-39 with 6:15 left, Santos’ layup started a streak of 11 unanswered points for the Hawks. Santos kept making his presence known inside, later putting back another miss, then turning Mazzulla’s fourth steal into his fourth dunk of the game.

“He’s long, long,” St. Ray’s head coach Tom Sorrentine said of Santos. “He didn’t play the first time, but we didn’t block him out either [tonight].”

For good measure, Santos had another put-back on the next possession to push the lead out to 58-39 and put the game out of reach for the Saints with just a few minutes to go.

The Hawks looked like they would make it a blowout in the first half, but the Saints fought back. After Dimitri Rosa made all three free throws after getting fouled from beyond the arc, St. Ray’s was faced with a 25-11 hole. Forward Huascar Beato, who had all of his 10 points in the first half, cut into the deficit with a layup.

Beato and Wilson helped the Saints keep pace in the opening 16 minutes and facilitated the surge late in the half. They combined for 20 of the Saints’ 26 points.

Beato netted his final points of the half on another contested effort, getting the Saints within nine, 27-18. Mazzulla answered with a bucket and Lawton, who led the Hawks with nine in the first half, made a free throw to make it a double-digit game again, 30-20.

The Saints ended the half with a 6-0 spurt that forward Mohammed Danmola started with a layup. Wilson got the Hendricken lead down to 30-24 with 1:20 to go, and then got fouled by Mazzulla on a shot from outside the 3-point line. He made two of his three attempts at the stripe, allowing the Saints to get within four, 30-26, heading into halftime.

The Saints will look to regroup heading into the open state tournament next week. They currently sit as the No. 10 seed in the table, though they won’t know officially until Selection Monday.

“We got to rebound the ball,” Sorrentine said, with a laugh, about what the Saints will work on going into the open tournament. “We got to keep working on our presses. We got to get something out of that. We can’t just let teams come down and set up on us and throw it inside.”

Hendricken has a semifinals tilt with Smithfield on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Rhode Island College. The two teams met once this season, on Feb. 9, when the Hawks fell 51-43 on the road to the Sentinels.

“We’re going to play them like every other team, but we got a little bit more fierceness,” Mazzulla said. “Just [have to] play our hardest the whole game, and we do typically.”

Santos suffered his wrist injury in that game, and was either limited or out during the final 10 minutes of action. He said this time around he looks forward to getting a full-game crack at the Sentinels.

“I want my revenge, man,” Santos said. “A good team like that, and I wasn’t able to fully do what I’m supposed to. I’m ready to go, and I’m ready to try and get this win.”