AUBURN – The plan was to limit Margaret Veroneau and hope nobody else could pick up the slack Friday night.

So when Mariam Qazi started hitting from the outside, the St. Dom’s girls’ basketball team knew that wasn’t a good omen.

“We knew if the Qazi girl would get hot, she was going to be a problem,” said St. Dom’s coach Paul Rheaume.

“We saw her play in two games last weekend. In one game, she was stone cold, and the second game, she was hot as a pistol. She was hot today. If she’s cold, we could try to contain Veroneau and we’re OK.”

It didn’t quite work out the way the Saints had hoped in a 54-24 loss in their season opener.

Veroneau finished with 25 points, while Qazi added 17. That proved too much for an inexperienced Saints club.

“They really focused their attention on Margaret,” said Waynflete coach Brandon Salway.

“Margaret got what she could with two people on her most of the time. Mariam stepped up and had a pretty good game from the outside.”

The Flyers built a 12-8 lead in the opening quarter. Veroneau and Qazi each hit 3-pointers during a fast start. Waynflete then broke things open with an 18-6 run before halftime.

Veroneau and Qazi combined for 14 of the points during that stretch.

“Our girls played hard the first half,” said Rheaume. “They showed in the first period that they could play with them. Then our turnovers hurt us, which has been our demise throughout the preseason. The girls just have to learn to play together.”

The Saints got as close as 16 in the third quarter, but watched the Flyers finish the game with 10 straight points.

Freshman forward Allaina Murphy led the Saints with 12 points. Kelsey Murphy added six.

The Saints could not match the Flyers’ experience. Waynflete graduated two players from last year’s club that lost in the Western C quarterfinals. St. Dom’s lost three starters and nine players overall from last year and are still learning to execute.

“We’ll get better as the season goes on,” said Rheaume, whose club plays the Flyers again in January. “We’ll just keep working, and hopefully we can give them a better game the next time around.”