SACO — It had not been an easy stretch for the Thornton Academy girls’ basketball team, which lost three straight games, all to fellow Class AA South contenders.

That ended Thursday night.

The Trojans held Deering to four points in the final quarter and came away with a 44-40 victory in an SMAA game at Linnell Gymnasium.

Thornton was helped when Deering, ranked third in Class AA North, was missing two starters, but it still played a gritty game and earned praise from its coach, Eric Marston.

“(Deering) was a little shorthanded tonight, but at the same time I am pleased with our girls’ effort,” said Eric Marston.

“The past few games we’ve been playing extremely hard but came up short. It was nice to get one in the win column and get rewarded for the effort.”

The Trojans (6-4) trailed by one point entering the final quarter before shutting down the Rams (7-3).

Alexandra Hart finished with team highs of 14 points and nine rebounds for Thornton to go with four assists and two steals, but most importantly she came up big down the stretch.

With a 40-39 lead midway through the final period, Deering passed the ball around the 3-point arc, looking for its best shot while also draining time off the clock.

Finally, Ashleigh Mathison missed a 3-pointer with a little less than four minutes remaining.

Hart grabbed the rebound and dribbled to half-court, where she found Amanda Bogardus running down the wing for a layup.

The basket gave Thornton the lead for good with 3:38 remaining.

Hart then iced the game when she grabbed a long rebound off a missed 3-pointer by Tasia Titherington with 20 seconds remaining, then scored on a coast-to-coast layup.

Hart was fouled on the play and hit the free throw for a 44-40 lead with 14 seconds to play.

“On defense we weren’t doing our rotations very well but at the end of the game we came together,” Hart said.

“They’re a really good team. We’ve always struggled against them, so it’s really good to come out with a (win).”

Alisha Aube, the top scorer for the Trojans, was held to seven points while being slowed by Titherington, one of the top defenders for the Rams, in a man-to-man defense. But that simply opened up more opportunities for Hart.

“That’s the luxury of having two high-profile scorers, it’s tough to shut down both of them,” Marston said. “They played (Aube) really tight tonight.”

Deering Coach Mike Murphy was without his leading scorer, Delaney Haines, who was sidelined by illness, and a top forward Amanda Brett, who has a broken leg.

Still, he was pleased that his team had a chance to win in the end.

Murphy has had to shuffle his rotation quite a bit. He said young players who had been seeing about 10 minutes per game are now playing more than 30 in a 32-minute game.

“It came down to one possession and we didn’t rotate back, and they got a layup out of it when the ball looked like it was three-quarters the way down,” he said.

“But that’s a good team over there and I give them credit. But I give our kids credit, too, for staying with them.”

Titherington led Deering with 16 points – 12 in the second half – four rebounds and four assists. Abi Ramirez, Victoria Garand and Mathison chipped in with six points apiece, and Ramirez also had a team-high five rebounds.

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