AUGUSTA - Scan its roster, watch it run the floor, steer your eyes up and down its bench, and St. Dominic Regional High School just has that look of a team that we're going to be seeing over and over again in the future at Augusta Civic Center.

So why not tomorrow?

No. 12 St. Dom's won a Western Class C girls' basketball quarterfinal for the first time in school history Tuesday night, playing the fourth quarter of its dreams to run away from No. 4 Hebron Academy, 42-25.

Freshman Allaina Murphy scored nine of her 13 points in the first half and Catherine Joseph chalked up eight of her 10 after intermission for the Saints, who led throughout and delivered the knockout with a 7-for9 shooting performance in the fourth quarter.

"I think we just relaxed," said Joseph, the lone senior starter. "We came out playing tight and missed a lot of lay-ups. As time went on, we got it together and were able to work together as a team."

That doubles as an apt description of St. Dom's season, a campaign that continues with a semifinal showdown at 3:30 p.m. Thursday against top-seeded Madison.

St. Dom's has emerged from the unofficial prep school corner of the Western C bracket, eliminating No. 5 Hyde School in the preliminary round and now taking out a second member of the top five.

Offense has been slow-developing and spotty in both wins, but defense never betrayed the Saints (12-8). St. Dom's harassed Hebron into 31 turnovers and 8-for-52 (15 percent) shooting.

Kelsey Murphy supplemented her eight points with 11 rebounds and seven steals. Point guard Elise Applegate put together six points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals while playing lockdown defense on Hebron's Andrea Hart.

"The last half of the year, they played real good defense," said St. Dom's coach Paul Rheaume. "The second half, we switched up defenses, and it seemed to help quite a bit."

With Joseph and Kelsey Murphy leading the sticky-fingered resistance, Applegate quarterbacked a flurry of fast breaks in the fourth quarter. The result: St. Dom's sank its first five shots and ripped open a lead that hovered between four and eight points for most of the evening.

Applegate, Joseph, Sara Theriault and Allaina Murphy each delivered points during the decisive 10-0 run.

"We knew they were weak getting back, so what we wanted to do was push the ball down the floor," Rheaume said. "Elise got some good breakaways on that."

Hart finished with nine points and 11 rebounds to lead the Lumberjacks (11-7).

Meghan Munro directed a Hebron defense that stood toe-to-toe with St. Dom's for three quarters. She finished with six points, seven rebounds, five steals and three blocked shots before fouling out with 6:24 remaining.

"We gave them a good fight," said Hebron coach Heather Ferrenbach. "We couldn't find our shot. I have a couple of players who, if they're on, they're hitting it, and they weren't on tonight. That hurt. We didn't really have the movement on offense that I wanted."

Hebron twice trailed by eight points in the first half but didn't let the Saints out of reach. St. Dom's jumped out to an 8-0 lead, capped by a Kelsey Murphy 3-pointer and transition lay-up, before Hart and Munro hooked up for seven unanswered points.

Joseph and Theriault strung together hoops to make it 18-10, only to see a short jumper by Emily Powers and two Hart free throws reduce the deficit to four at the break.

Eleven turnovers and 8-of-30 shooting stung the Saints in the first half.

"The adjustment we made at halftime was telling the girls to just take care of the ball," Rheaume said.