Basketball Asserts Themselves, Take Down the Rams, 64-50

To be simple, this is now just a white-hot rivalry.

It seems that in three of the four 'major' sports - basketball, football, and baseball - the Hawks and the Rams not only continually produce one classic contest after another in regular season matchups, but they also, more often than not, end up facing one another deep into the playoffs when the real money is on the table. While we've been respected rivals for a long time now, it seems as though the intensity has spiked during the course of the 6-8 years.

Tuesday night was no different.

Coming off a season in which LaSalle was the heavy favorite to take the state basketball title - one in which they disposed of our guys fairly easily on two separate occasions before being shocked by the Hawks in the state semi-finals at the Ryan Center - the Rams came into Pepin Gym carrying a 6-0 mark and ranked as the top team in the state. Things are not, however, quite the same as they were last season.

First, while the Hawks certainly peaked at just the right time for last season's playoff run and may have overachieved on their way to the state title, one of the truly significant takeaways from that team was that despite the losses of Garfield Coustard and EJ Nygren, virtually the entire team would be returning in 2014-'15.

Second, Coach Gomes always tries to have his guys play a fairly rigorous non-league schedule, so as to force his guys to gain valuable experience and to become battle-tested. As a result of their games against a tough, talented and well-coached team from Corner Canyon, Utah (loss) and the team's experiences in Orlando at the Walt Disney Classic (particularly the championship game against Dover, another very talented team), the Hawks entered Tuesday night's game against their archrivals no doubt feeling confident in themselves as a team.

And then they went out and showed it.

Pepin Gym was packed, and, of course, The Network was in its usual perch not-so-high-above-courtside. Although we experienced some wifi issues early on, we were still able to broadcast the majority of the game. Johnathan Feeny, Cam Brennan, Conner Saulnier, Steve Hafey and DT Barron handled all Network business.

Ridiog a 7-0 run at the end of the first half that enabled them to go into the half with a 26-22 lead and a roughly five-minute stretch at the beginning of the second half during which the Hawks held the Rams without a field goal, our guys were able to open up a lead of up to 15 points and never looked back. Leading the way for the Hawks were Justin Mazzulla and Ira Lough, each with 22 points apiece.

Up next for the Hawks is a raod game at West Warwick, tonight at 7pm. The Network will have the game, live. After that, it's on to Boston Garden, Saturday afternoon at 2pm for a date with Malden Catholic, which will no doubt be yet another one of those games that "battle-tests" our guys and prepares them for the rest of their Division I schedule.