SACO — On Jan. 13, the Thornton Academy girls basketball team lost a 44-42 contest with Scarborough. The Golden Trojans were 1-7, suffering from a 7-game losing streak.

What a difference a month makes.

Thornton exacted its revenge on Scarborough on Tuesday night, pounding the Red Storm for a 66-38 win at Linnell Gym. Since the first loss to Scarborough, the Trojans have turned in a 7-2 record, and are on a 5-game win streak.

Thanks to a Bonny Eagle loss to Westbrook on Tuesday night, the Trojans moved up from 9th place to 7th place in the Western Class A standings.

To ensure a spot in the playoffs, however, Thornton will have to win its regular season finale on Friday. And who do they play? None other than its cross-river rival, Biddeford.

The Tigers have had a rough season, with a 6-11 record, but would love to spoil any chance of Thornton moving on to the tournament. In the only game against each other this season, Thornton escaped with a 37-34 win on Jan. 31.

“It’s a dog fight now, anything can happen,” Thornton Academy head coach Eric Marston said. “We’re just going to focus on taking care of our business and try to beat the Tigers at Steve White Gym on Friday.”

For Marston, numerous changes have taken place in his team since that Jan. 13 loss, but none as big as the change of success in the defense.

“I think it’s a combination of things,” Marston said. “No. 1, we’re playing a lot smarter basketball. We got up on them 19-2 at their place to start the game [on Jan. 13] and then they played very aggressively and did a lot of things right, but we took a lot of  poor shots, and we’ve grown a little in our shot selection. The No. 1 thing has been our defense, which has been considerably better. Our half-court defense, we’re starting to play a little more aggressively and locking some teams up more.”

Defense was on display Tuesday night, as the Trojans (8-9) kept the Red Storm to just 14 points in the first half, and only one point in the second quarter.

Mix in a game-high 22 points from Thornton guard Hannah Ebling, along with 16 points from forward Meghan Agger and guard Lauren Titus, and the game got out of hand quickly.

Ebling said because of all the hard work on defense in practice, the team has responded in a big way.

“Our coaches stress defense way more than offense,” Ebling said. “We want to be known more as a defensive team than an offensive team, because we know that our offense will come easy to us and we’ve worked so hard on defense. During practice, that’s all we work on is defense. Defense creates offense.”

It’s been a big week in particular for Ebling. In the past three wins (Windham, Massabesic, Scarborough), Ebling has averaged 19 points per contest. She was also announced as a McDonald’s All-American team nominee.

“It was kind of a shock, but I was just really excited,” Ebling said.

Both teams kept the contest close in the first quarter, as Thornton led Scarborough 16-13. But the Trojans buckled down on defense, allowing the Red Storm to score just one point in the second, and added a 13-0 run offensively to head into halftime with a 34-14 lead.

Scarborough (5-12) fought back in the third, adding 16 points to its score, thanks to forward Brittany Bona, who led the team with 16 points on the night. But the lead was far too big to overcome, and Thornton buckled down on defense again in the fourth quarter – holding the Red Storm to just eight points – to seal the win.

“I think we’re just coming together as a team, and just playing together,” Ebling said. “Our defense has stepped up 100 percent. We changed our offense halfway through the season, and it’s finally clicking. We’ve been playing for a while, too, and I just think we were struggling with the losses and finally, once we got a couple of wins, finally got going.”

The game against Biddeford is scheduled for a 7 p.m. tip-off on Friday at Steve White Gym in Biddeford.

— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535 ext. 318.