AUBURN — The St. Dom’s boys basketball team has length and size that can cause problems for opposing offenses.

“When we’re able to shut teams down, I think we get in their heads and they get discouraged, and then we keep going on a run,” St. Dom’s senior Jonathan Tangilamesu said. “It just leads to more points, more stops.”

The Saints had a block party Tuesday in their 65-44 victory over Poland.

They swatted 12 shots, led by Jack Brocke five rejections to go along with his team-leading 16 points. Tangilamesu turned away four shots and added 14 points. Donal Tangilamesu had a pair of blocks and Mason Laflamme had one for the Saints (2-0).

Taylor Varney, who finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds, said big blocks and rebounds usually give the Saints offensive momentum.

“I think our defense really leads to our offense being able to run in transition, get steals, get blocks and just push the momentum, put points on the board the other way as soon as possible; it helps us a lot,” Varney said.

St. Dom’s coach Josh LaPrell said Jonathan Tangilamesu and Brocke have body types to be disruptors on the defensive end.

“John is just such a physical beast and Jack is unassuming — he’s tall, he’s lanky, but he’s very athletic, and he blocks a lot of shots,” LaPrell said. “Then, Jonathan, it’s hard to keep him off the glass and out of the post, and he did a really nice job getting the ball inside. When he slows down he does a nice job in the paint. Then Jack is just … he just cleans up everything.”

Tangilamesu, Brocke and the rest of St. Dom’s starters are 6 feet or taller. The Knights (1-1), meanwhile, are undersized, and they struggled to get into a groove in the first half.

“Their size and length and ability to shot block certainly created problems for us,” Poland coach Jason Knight said. “We don’t match up well. That’s not a good matchup for us, size-wise. And if we’re not shooting well to start, it doesn’t allow us to set up our defense that we want to do.”

LaPrell wanted the Saints to set the tone by owning the paint early in the game.

“Coach Knight does a great job, and they play hard,” LaPrell said of Poland. “So we knew if we could contain the drives and take away the 3s, it would be very hard for them to score because they don’t have a big guy that they can throw the ball inside. And I think we did a really nice job, you know, pressuring the ball, taking away the 3-pointer, and then we blocked. I don’t know how many blocks, but we had a lot.”

Knight said the Knights changed a few things up at halftime to get the offense going.

“We talked about a couple of adjustments at halftime to try to create some more space for our shooters,” Knight said. “I think that worked in the second half to get Nick (Jamo), (Jake Jamo), and Anthony Warren and Alex (Mains) some better open looks against their size.”

Jake Jamo had 13 points in the game and Nick Jano added 12 points. Warren had seven points, while Mains hit a 3-pointer in the third.

LaPrell said Tuesday’s third quarter showed that St. Dom’s still has things to work on. And that’s fine.

“We just got to clean up some stuff and some passes, but it’s like I say, we don’t want to be playing our best basketball in December,” LaPrell said. “We want to be playing our best basketball in February and March.”