The way Rick Simonds saw things, there were two major differences between the first and second halves of Friday night’s boys basketball game between Bonny Eagle and Thornton Academy.

The No. 1 difference was the play of Anthony Atkins, who Scots coach Simonds called “arguably our best player.” He scored 12 of his 15 points in the second half.

The No. 2 difference was Bonny Eagle’s ability to disrupt Thornton’s offensive flow.

“The only thing we were trying to do was keep the ball out of the high post because a lot of their offensive sets run into the high post,” said Simonds. “We didn’t always do what we wanted, but I think that it affected them a little bit.”

It affected the Trojans enough. They held a halftime lead, but ended up losing, 66-58, to fall to 2-3. Bonny Eagle improved to 2-3 with the win.

“We had a hard time defending them. They scored and we didn’t stop them,” said Thornton coach Bob Davies. “They stopped us on a couple of trips there in the second half and that was about the difference.

“I think the kids played hard the whole game. Like I said, we missed a couple of shots there in the third quarter and they made a little separation, and from there you can’t trade baskets.”

The teams did trade baskets in the first 16 minutes of the game, and the result was a 39-38 lead for the Trojans. Junior forward Tyler Kelley led the first-half attack for TA with 11 points, but just about everyone got in on the action.

Senior guard Justin Blake had 10 points, while Mike Burchill had seven, Elliot Thomas had four and sophomore center Kory Martin had five.

“I thought right from the get-go that Thornton played extremely hard, and I’m not sure if we were prepared for them, how hard they were ready to play,” said Simonds.

Luckily, Simonds had center James Hanley on his side. The Scots’ normal go-to player (Atkins) may have been slow to start, but that was okay because Hanley couldn’t miss.

In the game’s opening minutes, Hanley made baskets on three straight trips down the floor. First, he bounced a turnaround off the glass from in the lane. Next, he tipped in a rebound. And finally, he knocked down a jumper from the right wing. Hanley finished with 12 points in the first quarter to lead the Scots to an 18-16 lead.

“I think we were just moving the ball and we ran the floor really well tonight,” said Hanley, a 6-foot-4 senior.

The game stayed close through the second quarter as both teams continued to hit their shots. The momentum began to sway in Bonny Eagle’s direction in the third quarter, though, when Atkins got hot and the defense did enough to disrupt the Trojans.

“I think it might’ve been fatigue, but we came out soft and their big man, Atkins, came out strong and started beating us with his moves,” said Kelley, who finished with 17 points.

Atkins nailed a three-pointer to put the Scots back up two minutes into the third. He then knocked down a fall-away to make it 45-42.

The Trojans regained the lead (46-45) for the last time midway through the quarter on a slash and turnaround by Kelley. The Scots responded with a 9-0 run that was capped with an up-and-under lay in by Atkins.

Thornton wouldn’t get any closer than within five points the rest of the way.

“I think we were just playing really hard and we came out and just started outplaying them,” said Hanley. “I think that we’ve been playing pretty well, but I think now that we’ve got the hard games out of the way we’ll be playing a lot better.”