Deering High’s boys’ basketball coach, Todd Wing, said he talked with his players about showing more toughness in the wake of a 56-53 loss Thursday against unbeaten Thornton Academy.

And even though the Rams allowed most of a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead to slip away Saturday against South Portland, Wing thought his team made progress as it held on for a 56-54 win.

“Coming into tonight we stressed toughness (from our team) and that was a tough team out there,” said Wing, whose team improved to 8-2. “We knew coming out of (the loss to) Thornton we had some things (playing tougher) we needed to address. And I thought we addressed them tonight.

“We beat each other up in practice (on Friday), and that was our intent to come out with an edge and a swagger, and think they completed that tonight.”

Since a season-opening, seven-point loss to defending Class AA state champion Portland, South Portland (8-2) had won eight straight – all by at least nine points.

The Red Riots had three chances in the closing seconds to win this one.

First, with Deering’s lead down to 55-54, South Portland’s Ruay Bol missed a 5-foot jumper. The rebound was knocked back beyond the 3-point arc to Noah Malone, whose runner in the lane came up short.

Deering’s Machar Nguany (eight rebounds) grabbed the missed shot and threw a baseball pass to Manny Chikuta (19 points, six rebounds), who was fouled on a layup.

He intentionally missed his second free throw after converting the first. South Portland called a timeout with four-tenths of a second showing on the clock.

Ansel Stilley (14 points, eight rebounds) missed a heave from just over midcourt at the buzzer.

“We knew this was going to be a good, close game,” Red Riots Coach Kevin Millington said. “We haven’t had too many close games in while, and we’ve been craving to get into some competitive games on our schedule.

“The biggest thing for us tonight was we shot poorly, and we haven’t done that all year. But we haven’t been defended by anyone like (Deering).”

The Rams led 47-41 entering the fourth, thanks to nine points each from Chikuta and James Sinclair in the third. A fast-break layup by Junior Butera and a reverse layup by Nguany pushed the advantage to 10 points with 5:24 remaining.

South Portland went on a 13-4 run get to within one point. The Red Riots scored from the outside (3-pointers by Malone, Stilley and Connor Buckley), in transition (Stilley fast-break layup) and in their half-court offense (Stilley baseline drive off Bol’s pass from the foul line).

The Rams got a huge game from Sinclair off the bench. The 6-foot-5 senior poured in 16 points and pulled down seven rebounds. Raffaele Salamone finished with eight rebounds.

“He’s a player that’s confident … and is tough to guard because of his size on the wing, but he can also finish inside,” Wing said of Sinclair.

Malone finished with 12 points on four 3-pointers. Buckley had 10 points and three steals.

Deering jumped out to an 11-0 lead three minutes into the game before the Red Riots battled back to within 14-13 by the end of the quarter.

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