AUBURN – The St. Dominic boys’ basketball brain trust affectionately refers to the Saints’ current stretch of games as “The Killer B’s.” You can bet they’re even appropriately color-coded, black ink highlighted in yellow, on the bulletin board schedule.

And the first one stung like crazy.

Yarmouth gave St. Dom’s a cruel introduction to that beefed-up, second-half Western Maine Conference docket, suppressing the Saints 62-46 at Callahan Family Gymnasium in a holiday matinee.

St. Dom’s (4-4) ominously began a six-game stretch in which it will encounter five Class B foes. Those games might determine whether or not the Saints are playing on the next holiday, as in the traditional slate of Presidents’ Day Western Class C quarterfinal games at Augusta Civic Center.

“We have to pick up the intensity pretty quick,” said St. Dom’s coach Dan DeBruin, who’ll hit the road with his team for crucial games against Class B Freeport, Poland and Gray-New Gloucester between now and Feb. 4. Throw in a home game against perennial powerhouse Falmouth for good measure.

Yarmouth got everyone involved at both ends of the floor. Andy Crawford led the Clippers with 12 points. David Weinstein added nine and Justin Morrill and Hans Tobiason chipped in eight apiece, while Chase Oliver supplemented his seven points with 15 rebounds and nine assists.

Defensively, the Clippers (4-6) confounded the Saints with a halfcourt trap that tried to pry the ball away from explosive Justin Richardson and force someone else from St. Dom’s to hit an open shot or two.

“I’m not sure it really bothered St. Dom’s,” said Yarmouth coach Adam Smith. “It seemed like every time we’d look up, somebody else was hitting a 15- or 20-footer.”

Ultimately, the switcheroo succeeded. Richardson nailed five 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 20 points, while Justin Fongemie (nine points) and Andrew Gilbert both knocked down a trey. But St. Dom’s struggled to a 15-for-51 (29 percent) clip from the floor, making 14 turnovers.

And working the ball inside didn’t help matters, thanks in part to 11 missed free throws.

“Justin just came off back-to-back 30-point games,” DeBruin said. “They obviously wanted to force somebody else to step up. We think we have people who can, but we don’t seem to have that killer instinct yet.”

The Saints surrendered the lead for good when Yarmouth made a 7-0 run early in the second period, and eight more unanswered points put the Clippers in front 32-20 at the half. St. Dom’s snuck no closer than eight thereafter.