FREEPORT — It seemed that every time a St. Dominic Academy player had the ball, two or even three Freeport players were there, trapping and slapping at the ball and basically causing havoc all over the court.

If Saints players felt that way Friday in a Western Maine Conference contest, they were right. The Falcons forced 28 first-half turnovers and found scoring from several candidates en route to a 52-25 victory.

“To me, it is about how much intensity that we bring in,” said Freeport coach Mike Hart, whose 11-3 Falcons visit Poland on Tuesday at 7 p.m. “When everyone is moving and rotating, we do well. Tonight, we had a plan for everyone to work hard and make them work for every square inch of the court. In the first half I thought we accomplished that.”

At times, the Saints had trouble simply reaching midcourt, much less putting points on the board.

“Their press was more overwhelming than I thought it was going to be,” said Saints first-year coach Chris Marston, whose squad fell to 4-10 and visits Traip Academy on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. “It wasn’t so much that they were there, but how hard Freeport was working. Their relentless effort was too much for us. We were waiting for a break and it wasn’t happening.”

St. Dom’s recently defeated Old Orchard Beach, while Freeport fell to the Seagulls. But, the Falcons put that loss behind them, dominating the Saints with a suffocating full-court press.

“We got too cocky against OOB after some big wins, and we played down to that level,” said Freeport junior Taylor Rinaldi, who had a game-high 16 points. “This time, we wanted to come out and play stronger, not like we did at OOB. We played really good defense, and we have really good speed. We want to do that every time out.”

Tough going

It appeared early that points were going to be hard to come by. The game was scoreless for the first two minutes, with the Saints committing seven turnovers on their first seven possessions while forcing the Falcons into three miscues and four missed shots. Hart called a quick timeout.

“We weren’t doing the things that we wanted to, then we started making our cuts and getting open, but then we didn’t make shots,” said Hart. “It is a game of runs. You will have moments where you do really well, and moments where you don’t do really well. You can’t be that kid that wants to go into a shell and doesn’t want to come out of it.”

“In the first quarter, I thought we defended well in the half court. We held them scoreless for a while. I thought it might be 2-0 after a quarter, with the way the defenses were playing,” added Marston.

But, Freeport found its offense, receiving six points apiece from Caroline Smith and Regan Lynch for a 16-4 advantage after a quarter.

After committing 11 turnovers in the opening frame, the Saints made 17 more miscues in the second. On the other side, the Falcons found a solid offensive flow, led by eight points from Rinaldi and seven from Jessie Driscoll in building a 35-10 halftime lead.

“We did really well in the second quarter. We got out and ran the floor, and not only that, we worked hard in the passing lanes,” said Hart.

After a 6-0 run early in the second half, Freeport retreated back into a half-court defense, allowing the Saints to find a bit more offense, led by five third-quarter points from Chloe Dwinnel, with Mia-Angelica Leslie adding four.

“We are still new to the conference and the way teams play, and when we are thrown a haymaker like that early, we have a hard time responding,” said Marston. “When we went on a running battle with them in the second half, we had three freshmen on the court, so we take some positives away from this.”

Dwinnel paced St. Dom’s with six points, two steals and two assists. Becca Zimmerman, Leslie and Skye Rogers each chipped in four points, with Caroline Gastonguay pulling down seven rebounds and dishing out three assists.

Driscoll chipped in nine points, six steals and two assists for Freeport, with Smith adding eight points, six boards and two steals, Lynch eight points and six caroms, and Johanna Bogue-Marlowe earning seven assists and three steals.

Freeport shot 35 percent (22-of-62) from the floor and made 8-of-12 from the free-throw line. St. Dom’s was 10-of-47 (21 percent) from the field and 5-of-9 from the charity stripe.