By ALEX SPONSELLER The Bishop Hendricken boys basketball team dropped a 63-62 heartbreaker to visiting La Salle on Sunday night.

Hendricken led the Rams 62-61 with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation, but La Salle would get a score from Kelvin Odeh with seven seconds remaining to take the win.

The Rams mounted a four-point lead with just two minutes remaining, but the Hawks would get big scores – including a 3-pointer from Azmar Abdullah - to get back into it.

Senior captain David Lynch led Hendricken with 21 points along with Eze Wali, who also scored 21. Darius Lopes finished with nine points for the Hawks as well.

“La Salle is a very talented team, especially in their two senior guards. They had a great game plan and played extremely well,” said Hendricken coach Jamal Gomes. “I told the guys that we got better from that game. It was kind of like a barometer for us to see where we are. There’s no doubt in my mind we improved.”

Hendricken features a young roster this season, with Lynch being one of the few players with significant minutes in big games. Gomes is confident that games like this one will pay dividends by season’s end.

“We played tough, stuck together, had a chance when we were up one with eight seconds to go. We have a young group. David Lynch has been leading us very well, but we don’t have a lot of guys that have been in close games and that’s what they’ll have to learn - how to beat good teams in big games. It’s a learning process,” said Gomes.

Like many other teams, the Hawks have trudged through some tough scheduling this season, having six games postponed. Gomes and company are hoping to get back on track and find some consistency moving forward.

“You control what you can control, and there are some things you can’t control. Normally we’d have three or four more games under our belt before you’d play the tough, tough teams. It’s OK, it is what it is. I like my team, it’s an awesome group of guys that come every day and work hard. We just need to learn how to move forward,” said Gomes, who preached patience. “Improvement isn’t always a 45-degree angle. You just need to be patient and keep working hard. This consistency here is going to be huge. We’re just happy to be able to have a season and be together as a team.”

The Hawks rebounded to beat Mount Pleasant 53-44 on Tuesday evening.

Wali led the Hawks with a game-high 22 points while Abdullah scored 16 and Lynch 10.