PORTLAND — Ashley Briggs knew she and her Scarborough teammates had an opportunity to make a statement in their Southern Maine Activities Association girls’ basketball game against Cheverus on Tuesday night.

And, when the final buzzer sounded, the Red Storm had announced loud and clear that they deserved to be included in any contender conversations with a 48-36 road victory over the Stags.

“It’s big,” said Briggs, who scored nine points. “It’s huge.

“We were kind of underestimated at the beginning of the year and to come out and start the season the way that we have (9-0) is awesome. To beat Cheverus and to prove a point that we are here and we want to win, we want to be a championship team, that’s outstanding.”

The Red Storm didn’t exactly burst out of the gates against the Stags (7-2). They allowed an early basket leading to a timeout by Coach Tom Maines 25 seconds into the game.

“We made three errors starting with the jump ball, then the matchups and then the rotation,” Maines said. “I wasn’t going to put up with that anymore.

“I wasn’t sure if they thought they could win and that’s what I told them at halftime, ‘you guys started the game like you weren’t sure you could win. Then a couple good things happen and you start getting the confidence back.”‘

The impact of the timeout didn’t immediately sink in as Scarborough trailed 7-1 with 2 1/2 minutes left in the opening quarter.

The Red Storm finally begin to look a little more comfortable in the closing moments of the period with a 7-0 run to surge into their first lead of the game, 8-7.

Cheverus answered with the final three points of the period for a 10-8 advantage.

Taylor LeBorgne opened what turned out to be a monster quarter off the bench with a 3-pointer that restored Scarborough’s lead and started a 12-0 run that put it ahead 20-10. She scored 10 of the 12 points in the run that ate up more than half of the quarter.

“My role on the team is to come off the bench whenever we need a spark or a kick,” said LeBorgne, who finished with a game-high 15 points. “Tonight the shots just seemed to be falling for me.”

Scarborough carried a 23-16 lead into the break and continued its momentum by outscoring the Stags 15-7 in the third quarter. A 13-4 start to the period pushed the Red Storm into a 16-point lead (36-20), the biggest of the game.

“They played well and they deserved the credit,” said Cheverus Coach Richie Ashley.

“We just didn’t make enough shots.”

With Cheverus trailing 38-23 heading into the fourth quarter, Georgia Ford did her best to get the Stags back into it. She scored all eight points in a quarter-opening 8-1 run that brought the Stags to within eight with 4 1/2 minutes left in regulation, but that was as close as they got.

Ford finished with 12 points to lead Cheverus.

Correction: This story and headline were revised at 11:25 a.m., Jan. 11, 2011, to state that the Cheverus Stags had a previous loss.