St. Mary’s girls basketball coach Chuck Miller doesn’t expect his team to score in the 50s much this year.

His mind could change if he watches his team put up a first quarter like it did Thursday.

Fueled by a 27-point first quarter, the Saints never trailed on their way to a 56-35 road victory over Broadneck. The 56 points is a season-high for the Saints, who were held to 30 in Tuesday’s loss to St. Timothy’s.

The offensive output on Thursday was thanks to a press in the first quarter that forced numerous Broadneck turnovers. The Saints (4-2) scored the first eight points of the game, took a 12-3 lead midway through the quarter, then closed on a 15-0 run. They scored the first two points of the second quarter to push the lead to 29-3 before the Bruins finally broke the run.

“We’re not the fastest team in the world, so we figured maybe we can come out early and hit them with the press, get some turnovers and jump out on them,” Miller said. “We’re not a 55- or 60-point team. I could not be more happy with the defense the kids are playing.”

Karry Kelliher scored seven points in the first quarter and finished with a game-high 20 for the Saints, who led by 16 at the half and by 22 after three.

“We haven’t been pressing a lot lately, so that helped a lot,” Kelliher said. “We just had to make sure that we stayed focused and didn’t slow down or give up.”

Ashley Roy hit three 3-pointers and finished with 11 points for the Saints, who saw their entire starting five all score at least four points in the first quarter.

“Karry has to get hers, but after that we have to get everyone involved,” Miller said. “It’s tough to beat a team when it’s spread around like that.”

Freshman center Tara Haffelfinger scored eight points, Amanda Roy and Bethany Geiger each scored six and Toronto Williams added five for St. Mary’s, which has already played six games and will play four more in the next six days.

Molly Yeomans led the Bruins with nine points and six rebounds. Skylar Flewellyn came off the bench and added six points and four assists for Broadneck, which was playing just its second game after opening with a win over Southern last Friday.

Sidwell Friends 55, No. 3 Roland Park 51: The Reds (3-2) led 29-25 in the first half, before the Quakers (5-0) rallied in the second half to win at the Super Games DMV Battle at Upper Marlboro. Mir McLean led Roland Park with 27 points.

Catonsville 56, Owings Mills 12: Ashley Dickey scored 21 points to lead the visiting Comets (3-0) over the Eagles (1-2). Catonsville will host Mount de Sales on Saturday.

Aberdeen 48, North Harford 14: Lauryn Warfield had four points and six rebounds, but the visiting Hawks (1-2) fell to the Eagles (1-1).

Winters Mill 27, Century 24: Allie Cullison scored nine points and the Falcons (1-2) rallied in the second half to beat the Knights (1-2). Jessica Diorio had eight points for Century.

Fallston 36, South Carroll 29: Jillian Crawford scored 15 points to lead the visiting Cougars (1-2) over the Cavs (0-2).

Boys basketball

Ben Franklin 68, SEED 33: Julius Galloway and Khalik Kosh each scored 12 points to lead the host Bayhawks (3-1) past the Sabers.

Franklin 74, Harford Tech 63: Reggie Truitt scored 19 points and Ben Murphy had 18 points to lead the host Indians (3-0) past the Cobras (1-2). Franklin led by as many as 21 points.