PORTLAND – Louie DiStasio smiled just a little bit.

DiStasio and the Cheverus boys’ basketball team had plenty to be happy about Friday night.

The Stags went on a third-quarter run, capped by DiStasio’s nonchalant 3-pointer at the buzzer, and toppled South Portland 49-33 in a Western Class A matchup at Keegan Gymnasium.

Cheverus (11-3) turned a nip-and-tuck game into a blowout in the third quarter, when everything went right against the Red Riots (9-5).

The Stags hit 7 of 11 shots from the field in the third. As the clock ran down to end the quarter, Cheverus’ play was broken up. DiStasio casually hoisted a 3-pointer from at least 25 feet. Nothing but net. DiStasio briefly grinned as he walked back to the bench.

“That was a set play,” Cheverus Coach Bob Brown said. Then he rolled his eyes and laughed. “We lucked out right there because the ball was in (DiStasio’s) hands.”

In the third quarter, it didn’t matter who was handling the ball. Good things happened for Cheverus. Shawn Grover scored a pair of buckets and Cameron Olson had six points.

Cheverus led 21-17 at halftime but was up 37-23 after DiStasio’s 3-pointer. South Portland never got within single digits after that.

Grover, who finished with a game-high 16 points, credited Monday night’s loss to Portland as a wake-up call for the Stags. Though Cheverus lost that game 40-39, the Stags outscored Portland 30-13 in the second half.

“The other night we came out aggressive in the second half, every play,” Grover said. “We know we need to play as hard as we did in the second half of that game every minute of every game.”

Olson got the message from that loss, too. He had 15 points for Cheverus.

It was about time something went right for the Stags, a preseason Class A favorite. They’ve dropped three games in the month of January. Friday’s win gave Brown some confidence his Stags can be a contender again in February.

“It isn’t so much the win, it’s how we got the win,” Brown said. “We were doing the things we have to do to win. The three losses were prime examples of us not playing Cheverus basketball.”

South Portland Coach Phil Conley just shook his head after the game. The Red Riots held the lead in the second quarter as the teams traded shot for shot. Then South Portland’s shots stopped falling. The Red Riots were cold from outside all game — they hit just 1 of 13 3-pointers — but scored just six points in the third quarter.

“Cheverus shot the ball well and we didn’t come back on the other end and shoot,” Conley said. “They shot the lights out.”

On a typical night, Conley said, he’d expect the Riots to make at least four 3-pointers.

Credit the Cheverus defense, he said, for South Portland’s bad night behind the arc. Just another reason for the Stags to smile.