OK, so maybe they didn’t upset the undefeated, No. 1-ranked team in Western Class A, but by outscoring Sanford by 12 points in the second half Saturday, the Gorham girls basketball team walked off the hardwood with a much-needed moral victory.

And after falling behind by 23 points in first half, that was exactly what the Rams were looking for in the second.

So, yeah, they’ll take the 53-44 loss to Sanford. They’ll take it and they’ll learn from it because, with their first-ever appearance in the Class A playoffs likely only a few weeks away, they need to cram like it’s the night before a final exam.

“We knew what Sanford was all about,” said Gorham coach Sherry Coyne. “The girls knew it, but I think it was one of those things that you can say all you want, but once we got playing against them it takes a couple minutes. I think that’s what showed.

“They started to go in the direction of arguing with one another and they turned it right around. It was a whole different team in the second half.”

The Rams knew, heading into the game, that they would need to play physical if they were going to keep things close against Sanford, which is led by senior forwards Kayla Parker (6-foot) and Ruthie Briggs (5-foot-11).

The problem was that the undersized Rams got a bit too physical. Sanford went to the line for 15 first-quarter free throws and made 12 of them. As a result, Gorham trailed 20-10 at the end of the quarter.

“We knew we had to play physical, but we had to play physical in a smart way,” said junior guard Kelsey Wilson, who finished with seven points. “We can’t be making stupid fouls.”

The Rams scaled back the aggressiveness in the second quarter – and Sanford went to the line for just five free throws – but still the shots weren’t falling. Gorham missed its first four shots of the quarter and fell behind 26-10 as Parker had four points and Briggs had two.

Sanford’s run continued until the 3:50 mark, when Gorham got its first score of the quarter on a free throw by junior forward Ashley Michaud.

With the score 36-15 at the half, it was time for the Coyne and her assistants to do some motivating.

“We kind of had to snap our fingers in front of their faces and just say, ‘Hey, let’s just play them in the second half and forget about the score,'” said Coyne. “We set some goals at halftime – ‘Let’s outscore them. Let’s outrebound them, let’s take a couple charges.’ And that’s what we did.”

Sanford started the quarter the same way they ended the second – with a basket by Parker. But after that, the Rams went on a 9-0 run to close the gap to 14.

Freshman Rachele Burns (13 points) turned a steal into an easy lay-up. Then senior forward Emily Jenkins knocked down a pair of free throws, and Nicole Robitaille (six points) banked one in after an inside pass. Wilson hit a free throw to make it 38-22, and Jenkins hit two freebies to get the score to 38-24.

The Rams continued to scratch and claw in the fourth quarter.

“Scrappy teams like this, they can’t really match up with us well, so they’ve got to get up and play physical,” said Sanford coach Kristy Parent. “We got in foul trouble down low, so it created a problem for us because we’re used to scoring down there.”

Twenty seconds after Parker fouled out, Gorham’s Jenkins hit a runner, making it 49-39, but with only 1:25 left, time was running out. Robitaille got the Rams to within eight with a steal and lay-in, and then Alison Feibel hit a free throw and the score was 51-44.

That was as close as gorham would get, though.

No matter to Wilson.

“We’ve been setting individual team goals for ourselves, so we met at least one of those (by beating them in the second half),” she said. “So, our team is just working on the small things that helps us improve.”