AUBURN — Faith Grady emerged from the locker room and the Saint Dominic Academy post-game conversation carrying an icepack and flaunting a smile.

Each of those adornments helps tell the story of why the remainder of the Western Class C girls’ basketball tournament field should be wary of No. 8 St. Dom’s, which ousted two-time defending regional champion No. 9 Hall-Dale, 44-35, on Tuesday night at Callahan Family Gym.

Grady, a sophomore, missed six games due to illness and injury this winter. Callie Greco, a junior, sat out the same six and an additional two.

While short-handed, St. Dom’s went 2-6. When the Saints have their complete starting lineup, led by Grady, Greco and hard-nosed junior point guard Kelly Pomerleau, they’re now 9-2.

Their play-in performance made it easy to understand why. Grady narrowly missed a triple-double with 18 points, 11 steals and eight rebounds. Greco added 14 points, nine boards and five thefts. Pomerleau put up nine points, six steals and five assists.

“The main thing was we had all our players,” St.  Dom’s coach Jon Berry said. “When we’re healthy, I think we’re as good as anybody on a given night.”

St. Dom’s (11-8) advanced to a quarterfinal date with top-seeded Boothbay at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 19 at Augusta Civic Center.

Nicole Pelletier led the Bulldogs (9-10) with 11 points. Hall-Dale lost by six to St. Dom’s before beating them by 16 during the Mountain Valley Conference campaign.

In round three, despite a decided disadvantage on the boards and a shooting drought or two, the Saints were in control throughout.

“I think we executed well. They played great tonight, but I think we matched their intensity,” Greco said.

Greco’s two free throws with 37 seconds remaining in the first quarter gave St. Dom’s the lead for good.

The advantage grew to 23-18 at the half, with the trio of Grady, Greco and Pomerleau accounting for every point. It crested at 35-23 on a 6-0 run by the trio late in the third period.

St. Dom’s held Hall-Dale to 23 percent shooting (14-for-61) and forced 33 turnovers to overcome the Bulldogs’ 56-29 disparity on the glass.

“We knew their best shooters, so we knew who to close out on,” Grady said.

Hall-Dale’s Pelletier and Natasha Brown (eight points) were contained to three total 3-pointers.

Meagan Cope had six quick points to cut the lead in half before the third-period buzzer, but Greco’s putback and Grady’s steal and layup put the Saints back in command.

Both teams endured a five-minute scoreless skein in a nerve-wracked fourth quarter before Pomerleau’s long pass to Grady for two iced it with 39 seconds to go.

“We had a little bit of nerves, which you can understand with the lack of varsity experience,” Berry said. “Although we’ve played a full season, so I can’t use that anymore.”

St. Dom’s avenged a loss to Hall-Dale in the 2012 quarterfinals.

“No one really expected us to go (to Augusta) having one senior and being very young, but we knew we could compete,” Grady said.

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