AUGUSTA – It was a little quicker, a little bigger and a little more athletic.

Add it up, and the St. Dominic boys basketball team was a lot to handle Wednesday morning.

Taylor Varney scored a team-high 18 points and Campbell Perryman added 14 points as the No. 2 Saints raced past No. 3 Forest Hills 80-55 in a D South semifinal game.

“This was fun, exciting,” said Perryman. “Sometimes the shots don’t fall, but luckily today, they did.”

The Saints (19-1) will play top-seeded Valley (16-4) in the regional title game at 2:45 p.m. on Saturday in Augusta. It is the first regional finals appearance for the program.

The Tigers, who had their consecutive regional final appearance streak halted at four, finished 14-6.

Eighth-grader Jaxson Desjardins led the Tigers with 18 points while Cooper Daigle added 15. Junior Blaine Nadeau scored eight points for Forest Hills, as well.

“It’s tough,” Forest Hills coach Anthony Amero said. “Their athleticism was tough. It’s a different kind of tournament this year. We would’ve liked to have got back to the state game, but it wasn’t meant to be.”

The Saints, whose starting five all stand at least 6-foot-1, also got 12 points from Kai Taylor and 11 each from Jonathan Tangilamesu and John Brocke.

“For us, it has to be three things: defense, rebounding and transition,” said Saints coach Josh LaPrell. “In the second half, we saw it. When we move the ball, we get good looks.”

And the Saints didn’t miss many of those Wednesday.

The teams played a back-and-forth first quarter, combining for seven 3-pointers, as the Saints opened a 22-18 lead. That lead began to slowly mushroom as St. Dom’s began to parlay their athleticism and length into second-chance opportunities and easy looks.

Taylor and Brocke drilled 3-pointers in the opening three minutes of the second quarter, and Issac Yombe scored four points in the paint to push the lead to 36-23.

St. Dominic defender Campbell Perryman blocks a shot from Forest Hills’ Blaine Nadeau during a Class D South semifinal game Wednesday at the Augusta Civic Center. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

St. Dom’s opened the third on a 13-4 run, with Perryman and Taylor sinking long 3-pointers to highlight the burst.

“We play a fast game,” Perryman said. “We get out and run. We use all our length, and we have to do that.”

It’s not often a Forest Hills team is out-matched and out-played in the D South tournament, but that was the case Wednesday.

The Tigers were looking to make their fifth straight Class D title game appearance. They have largely had their way with most D South opponents in the last four years, but they also haven’t faced a team quite like the Saints, who played primarily a Class C schedule this winter.

Varney scored 10 of his 18 points in the third quarter, including a 3-pointer to push the lead to 64-42.

“We are a long, lengthy team,” he said. “We played well and shot the ball well. We’ve never been in this position before, so this feels good. We’ll be ready (Saturday).”

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