WESTWOOD — Needham’s defense came up with several late big stops to help lift the Rockets to 59-54 victory over Xaverian Saturday evening.

The Hawks and the Rockets just a few days ago met at Needham in an early season non-league matchup, with Needham pulling out the 62-53 victory. Being back at home, the Hawks looked to get some vengeance.

Unlike the first meeting, the Hawks had control of the game, but the Rockets stayed within striking distance.

Throughout the night, the two teams continued to play a game of tug of war with neither team giving the other an inch.

“We just played with heart,” said head coach Paul Liner.

In the first half the four points were the largest margin when Xaverian opened the second quarter with a 4-0 run to take a 16-11 lead.

The teams exchanged baskets the rest of the quarter with Xaverian going into the half with a 26-25 lead.

Coming out the second half the teams continued to trade blows, after the Rockets took a 32-30 lead Xaverian responded with a 15-5 run to end the quarter to take a 45-37 lead.

In the fourth quarter the Rockets went on a 6-0 run to start the fourth, their defense began to frustrate Xaverian as they outscored the Hawks 22-9.

Ben Marino and Matthew Cloonan were instrumental for the Rockets fourth quarter. Trailing 50-47 Marinon knocked tied things up at 50 with a three pointer

“I wasn’t hitting shots in the first half but they all have the trust in me,” said Marino

Cloonan, the senior captain, gave the Rockets the lead on a layup, from there on Needham made the necessary plays to pull out the win.

“We all play with heart,” said Marino. “We didn’t have it in the first half, didn’t have it for most of the third quarter but we came out in the fourth quarter we knew we had heart.”

First, Foster Wilinski broke a 52-52 game with an and one opportunity, Wilinsky could not convert the free but after Xaverians Andrew Dean missed two potential game tying free throws, Wilinski knocked down the free throws on his next two attempts to make it a 56-54 game.

“Next play mentality we preach that everyday,” said Liner. “Never give up.”

Xaverian had an opportunity to tie things at 57 but the Rockets defense came up with the huge stop to seal the game.

“We just played really well as a team,” said Liner.

This matchup had a tournament feel to it and could possibly foreshadow a third matchup in the state tournament.

“They wanted this win badly, we wanted it bad as well,” said Marino. “We’ve already seen them, they’ve already seen us so it’s a lot of game plan in between that’s why this atmosphere is so great.”