KENNEBUNK — Rossie Kearson tells his Sanford girls basketball players that they have the green light when they see a shot they like. On Thursday, the Spartans showed why.

Paige Sevigny scored 20 points, Mollie Puffer added 19 and 17 rebounds, and Sanford kept rolling with a 57-42 victory over Kennebunk, the Spartans’ fourth straight win and 10th in 11 games.

Sanford hit nine 3-pointers, including five in the third quarter.

“For us, our biggest thing is rebounding. If we can win the rebound battle, we feel like we can win a lot of games,” Kearson said. “And then I always tell them, good shots, if you’re wide open and uncontested, knock them down. Fortunately for us we started making shots, which gave us that cushion.”

Addie Clark scored 17 points and Cenzie Cunningham had 12 for Kennebunk (10-6).

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How’d they do it?

• Well-timed shooting. Sanford hit four 3-pointers in the first half, with two coming on back-to-back possessions from Puffer and Sevigny to turn a 17-14 lead into a 24-14 advantage. But the Spartans caught fire in the third, with Sevigny connecting twice from beyond the arc, and Puffer, Ava Hudson and Annalise Stimmell also hitting in a four-minute stretch that turned a 34-22 lead into a 51-26 runaway.

• With the hard-nosed Puffer leading the way, the Spartans dominated on the boards against the smaller Rams. Sanford outrebounded Kennebunk 25-12 in the first half and 45-23 for the game.

• The Spartans ramped up their defense on Kendall Therrien, and held the high-scoring guard to nine points.

Key moment

With 4:13 left in the second quarter, Cunningham hit a three to cut the deficit to 17-14. Sanford responded with the Puffer and Sevigny 3-pointers, and the lead was 10. The Rams never got back within eight.

“I thought we turned them over, and there were some times we just didn’t capitalize on it,” Kennebunk coach Rob Sullivan said. “That was a little deflating. We rely heavily on turning people over and scoring off of that. Sanford’s very good at recovering.”

What does it mean?

Sanford, which entered the day in third place and rose to first immediately following the win, keeps pace in a tight race for the No. 1 spot in Class AA South. Gorham defeated Westbrook, while South Portland was idle and faces Cheverus on Friday.

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They said it

“(Kearson) installing confidence in us and giving us a green light helps us understand that we can all shoot. He knows that, and that just helps us.” — Paige Sevigny

“It pushes us to find each other open on the perimeter, and it gets us hyped to play better defense.” — Mollie Puffer, on the shooting display

“We’re hitting our stride. We’ve won some games, things are looking good right now. … Defense is what it’s going to be about for us. If we can get stops and get some scores, things look good.” — Rossie Kearson

“I was very proud of our kids. That’s a team that’s won a lot of games, they’re going to win a lot of games, and it’s great for us to play in that environment.” — Rob Sullivan

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