With the backing of a boisterous home crowd, the Old Rochester Regional High School boys basketball team advanced to the quarter finals on Thursday night.

The Bulldogs overpowered the Apponequet Lakers 79-57 in the first round of the Division III South tournament.

ORR, the No. 1 seed, dominated the No. 16 seeded Lakers until the final buzzer.

Head Coach Steve Carvalho said the key to the win was defense.

Up  38-31 at halftime, he said the team focused on preventing the Lakers from scoring and pulled ahead by 10 and sometimes 20 points throughout the second half.

“Our defense has been our strength,” Carvalho said. “Thirty-one points (at halftime) is a little too many for my liking. The Lakers came in here and played hard like we knew they would and we put more defensive pressure on them.”

In a game that ORR led from the first quarter, the Bulldogs outplayed the Lakers on several fronts.

The Bulldogs coupled high-flying offensive plays with a tenacious defense. Several full court presses kept the Lakers off balance.

Freshman guard Jason Gamache kicked off a 6-point run with a basket to start the second quarter. Senior Jordan Menard and junior Will Santos quickly followed with baskets of their own.

Later in the second quarter, freshman guard Noah Fernandes soared to the basket on a layup. Soon after, Menard tipped the ball in during an alley-oop play. The move caused the ORR student cheering section, known as the Dog Pound, to erupt in cheers.

Throughout the game, Dog Pound denizens loudly supported the team.

“Having the fans back us was great,” junior forward Evan Santos said after the game. “People underrate that, but it’s great.”

Santos was the team’s high scorer for the game with 17 points. His brother Will scored 13 points during the game, as did Menard. Senior guard Ryan Beatty scored 15 points.

Carvalho said sharing the scoring duties is one of the things the team does well.

“We like spreading the scoring around,” Beatty said. “When you know there are guys on the team who can score we don’t have to be nervous about missing shots.”

The Bulldogs take on Hanover on their own turf on Saturday at 2:30 p.m.

“They’re a very good team,” Carvalho said about Hanover. “They’re the real deal… We’re confident in the kids and confident in our team. We believe in each other.”