SACO — Thornton Academy used a seven-point run early in the fourth quarter to take control and defeat Cheverus 62-53 in an SMAA boys’ basketball game Tuesday night at Linnell Gym.

After the run, the Trojans led by at least four points the rest of the way.

Before that, Thornton (13-2) had only three leads – 2-0 in the first quarter, 27-25 with 1:42 left in the half, and 45-44 on Austin Boudreau’s 3-pointer to end the third quarter.

During the spurt – which came after Cheverus (10-5) opened the fourth quarter with a short pull-up jumper by Jesse Matthews – Thornton got layups from Avery McKenzie and David Keohan, and three free throws by Keohan.

“That’s two very good basketball teams going at it,” said Thornton Coach Bob Davies. “It was a fun game to watch and be part of.”

Keohan poured in a game-high 29 points, mostly from the paint. He had nine free throws for the Trojans, who outscored the Stags 18-10 from the line.

“We always say that we should win four quarters of the game,” said Keohan. “We had one more quarter to win and everyone knew that.

“We knew we could battle inside and thought we could win that battle. We kept feeding the ball (inside) and we kept winning (the battles), and we won the quarter.”

Cheverus’ top scorer, Jack Casale, sat out parts of the third and fourth quarters with foul trouble. Another starter, Will Shibles, was called for his fourth personal with 1:44 left in the third quarter before fouling out with 2:30 remaining in the game.

“That was part of our game plan – everyone attack the basket, pump fake, get them in the air and get them in foul trouble,” Keohan said. “Everyone did a good job of doing that.”

Boudreau, who played for Cheverus the last three season, chipped in with 13 points and a game-high 11 rebounds for the Trojans. McKenzie grabbed seven rebounds and John Fogg had five assists.

Cheverus Coach Ryan Soucie said foul trouble is not common for his team.

“Casale being out of the game obviously hurts us on both ends of the floor,” Soucie said. “We’ve got to have other guys step up and (score). We had some pretty good contributions but we struggled to score at times. And we couldn’t get some stops defensively in the fourth quarter when we needed them.”

Trailing 57-51, the Stags resorted to fouling in the final minute, but the Trojans hit 5-of-6 free throws down the stretch.

Casale was still able to finish with a 17 points to lead Cheverus, followed by Matthews with 13. Both of them grabbed five rebounds.

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