The Cheverus girls’ basketball team wasn’t afraid to pull the trigger on 3-point shots Tuesday night against Portland, and it paid off.

The Stags knocked down seven of their eight 3-pointers before halftime, including three apiece from Kaylin Malmquist and Emme Poulin, on their way to a 63-32 victory at their home Keegan Gymnasium.

“It makes your offense look really good,” said Cheverus Coach Steve Huntington. “A lot of them weren’t necessarily the shots we wanted, but when someone gets hot I’m OK with the 3s. We do try to look inside more, but if it’s not Emme or Kaylin, we also have Brooke Dawson and Abby (Cavallaro) who can certainly shoot it, and Alayna (Briggs) who can certainly shoot it. We have a lot of weapons.”

Malmquist scored 15 of her game-high 19 points before halftime, while Poulin chipped in with 11 of her 17 before the break – allowing Cheverus (2-0) to take a 35-19 lead into the locker room.

“We were just trying to reverse the ball and get it down into the post to get more offensive touches,” Poulin said. “We were able to open the floor a little bit and it let us get some open shots and that’s really what we wanted.”

Briggs connected on a pair of 3s and finished with 10 points.

The Stags’ offense was led by its long-range shooters on Tuesday, but Cavallaro, a point guard, was an effective court general throughout.

“We have a lot of kids that are wing players, who can handle the ball, shoot it, pass it,” said Huntington. “It might take us a few possessions, or a quarter or even a half to find a mismatch. Abby did a great job of knowing where those mismatches were tonight and finding ways to get the ball into the hands of the right person.”

On the other end, the Stags’ defensive effort may have been as impressive as their shooting. Cheverus held the Bulldogs (0-2) to just nine field goals.

“We’re working on a few things, and our extended defense in the full court isn’t where we need it to be right now,” said Huntington. “We’re very good in the half-court and inside the 3-point line. We’re switching, we’re communicating, and we’re hoping as the season progresses we’ll tick up further from here. We had three days off though, so I wasn’t sure what we’d get tonight, but I was really happy with the girls’ performance tonight.”

Cheverus held Portland to just two points in the third quarter – both on free throws – and then allowed the Bulldogs just two field goals in the fourth.

“Our most important thing was just talking on defense,” said Poulin.

“We just knew we needed to have high energy and be where we were supposed to be on defense. We’re really proud, because this is what we’ve been working on in practice.”

Junior Reagan Brown led Portland with 15 points.

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