St. Dominic’s Mia-Angelina S. Leslie goes up for a layup during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. Buckfield’s Karen McNeil follows the play from the right. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

AUBURN — St. Dominic Academy’s girls’ basketball team prides itself on speed.

The Saints were in a full-court-press from start to finish Tuesday, creating turnover after turnover, which turned into fast-break opportunities on seemingly every other play. The Saints wore down and defeated Buckfield 64-28 in the Class C girls’ basketball preliminary round.

Mia-Angelina Leslie scored 16 points to lead St. Dom’s, including seven in the fourth quarter that put the cherry on top of a dominating team performance.

“We work on our press a lot during practice,” Leslie said. “We always think that the most important thing is to be really fast because that’s our strength, having fast players. It’s important because we got a lot of our points in transition.”

St. Dom’s used a 10-0 run to go up 17-5 in the first quarter thanks to back-to-back old-fashioned three-point plays by Leslie and Abigail Castonguay. Leslie scored seven in the first quarter to help the Saints to a 19-10 lead at the end of the period, but the hero of the first half was Skye Rogers, who grabbed eight rebounds, blocked two shots, scored four points and had a steal.

If there was a statistical category, Rogers filled it in the first half.

“Skye is a very good player and very well-rounded,” St. Dom’s coach J.P. Yorkey said. “She’s kind of shy sometimes and doesn’t always show off her full skill set, but she’s a very good player.”

While Rogers was bringing down five offensive boards, seven different players scored in the first half for the Saints. That included five from Castonguay and seven points from sharp-shooting Rebecca Zimmerman.

That sort of teamwork is just what the No. 9 Saints needed in their playoff opener. They will face top-seeded Boothbay next Tuesday.

“I think the biggest thing tonight was working as a team,” Leslie said. “We came together tonight, the entire team played tonight and almost everyone scored, so I was happy with that.”

The full-court press that the Saints ran was suffocating. The Bucks only scored 10 points in the second and third quarters combined. Buckfield senior Hannah Shields scored six of her 10 points in the first half, but it seemed like every time the Bucks got past the half-court line and through the press, they were still rushed into a bad shot.

“The big difference is that they have some skilled players, they’re tall, strong, athletic,” Buckfield coach Ryan Wilkins said. “It’s a tough matchup for us because we don’t really match them in any category particularly well.”

In the second half, Zimmerman got going on offense and hit a layup and then a quick 3-pointer off the steal and pass from Castonguay to go up 39-15. Zimmerman scored eight of her 15 in the third quarter. Hannah Kenney scored two free throws after she recorded one of her two steals of the quarter and was fouled on a layup.

Leslie and the Saints finished off the fourth quarter strong by outscoring the Bucks 14-8.

“We work hard for every single game,” Leslie said. “We came into this game thinking they could upset us so it doesn’t matter who it is, we work hard just the same. Boothbay is going to be a very hard challenge, but we are going to work just as hard for that one as we did for this one, and we’ll be prepared.”

For Buckfield, the improvement this season over last year is what the focus is on heading into the offseason.

“Like I told the girls, this isn’t about one game for us,” Wilkins said. “We aren’t going to look at the tree, we are going to look at the forest. We improved from one win last year to nine this year, and getting here (the postseason) is an accomplishment. It exceeded everyone’s expectations, including my own, so that’s what we should be excited about.”

St. Dominic’s Jessica Zimmerman floats over Buckfield’s Kathryn Henderson to shoot a basket during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

Buckfield’s Hannah Shields takes the ball down the court as she is followed by St. Dominic’s Jessica Zimmerman during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

St. Dominic’s Dominique Michaud looks for a teammate to pass the ball to as Buckfield’s Alyssa Litchfield come sin from the left, Kathryn Henderson enters the play from the back and Buckfield’s Hannah Shields guards from the right during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

St. Dominic’s Jessica Zimmerman powers past Buckfield’s Hannah Shields during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

St. Dominic’s Mia-Angelina Leslie looks to the basket while being defended by Buckfield’s Cassidy Lowell during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

St. Dominic’s Rebecca Zimmerman blocks Buckfield’s Hannah Shields during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)

St. Dominic’s Mia-Angelina S. Leslie goes up for a layup during Tuesday night’s basketball game in Auburn. (Sun Journal photo by Andree Kehn)