Bethlehem Catholic’s five-game winning streak came to a halt last Friday night, as the Golden Hawks fell at home to Whitehall 56-55 in a tightly contested East Penn Conference showdown.

The loss dropped Becahi to 7-4 overall and 4-3 in EPC play as the Hawks saw a game they led for most of the night slip away late in the fourth quarter.

A pair of free throws by Charles Hudson gave Whitehall (9-3, 5-2) their one-point advantage with less than 30 seconds to play, but the Hawks last chance at victory came when Justin Paz attempted a three-pointer in the waning seconds. The shot ultimately got stuck on the rim with 0.4 left on the clock.

Becahi had one more chance to draw up a play under the basket, but the lob pass near the hoop never came to fruition and the Hawks were dealt with a difficult league loss.

“Whitehall’s a tough team and we just didn’t play well enough in the final quarter,” said head coach Ray Barbosa, as his team led 44-39 entering the fourth. “We started the fourth quarter with three turnovers. You have to take care of the ball in crunch time and we didn’t do a good enough job with that.”

The loss came after the Hawks biggest win of the season three nights prior, when they knocked off a previously undefeated Pocono Mountain West (11-1) team 61-60.

Barbosa was hoping that there wouldn’t be a hangover in Friday’s contest against the Zephyrs and the Hawks didn’t show any signs of that, as they led by six at the end of the first quarter and held a 31-26 lead at halftime after Whitehall’s Mikey Esquilin nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer to draw his team within five.

But the early turnovers in the fourth quarter last Friday sparked a 12-4 Whitehall lead to start the quarter and the Hawks found themselves in a battle on each possession the rest of the way.

With the Hawks up 55-54 with 32.4 seconds left, Becahi got the ball back with the chance to increase their lead. Unfortunately when Kweku Dawson-Amoah received the inbounds pass, he found himself tied up with three Zephyrs and the officials deemed a jump ball, giving Whitehall the ball with the possession arrow in their favor.

That’s when Hudson found his way to the line for the winning free throws and handing the Hawks a stinging defeat.

“I thought it was a winnable game,” Barbosa said. “We just let it slip at the end. When we have leads, we can’t let it go late in the fourth. I think we’ll learn from that.”

The Hawks took on Nazareth (8-4) on Tuesday and host Emmaus (10-2) Thursday night before Saturday’s clash at Liberty (5-7).