BIDDEFORD — It’s an old cliché, but sometimes when it comes to rivalries, records don’t matter.

The Biddeford girls basketball team proved the old adage to be true on Monday night, as the Tigers pulled off a 36-29 upset over rival Thornton Academy.

“That’s the Biddeford-Thornton rivalry for you,” Biddeford head coach Brian Heal said. “That’s how it goes. It doesn’t matter what your record is. Last year we dropped one over (in Saco) that we should have won, they came back and won by three. Then (at the end of the season) we beat them here. Tonight was knock down, dragout to the last 20 seconds.”

“I’m not in shock, but I’m feeling great,” Tigers senior guard Bryanna Michaud said.

Guard Alyson Roy carried the Tigers (3-10). She scored a game-high 18 points, scoring half of her team’s points. Michaud added 10 points and pulled down seven rebounds.

“We always play better against T.A.,” Roy said. “We get pumped up for the game and the confidence level is there. It feels good.”

Heal took out an old page from the Biddeford playbook on Monday night, as the Tigers attacked the Golden Trojans with a full-court press that jolted Thornton from the beginning of the contest. With their defensive output, the Tigers kept Thornton’s leading scorer, Meghan Agger, to 12 points, and fellow forward Olivia Shaw, who entered the contest averaging 12 points per game, to just four points on the evening.

“Last year we got away from (press defense), because of our personnel,” Heal said. “This year, we’re a little bit deeper and we’re healthy now, so we’re able to get some people in and out that were able to do some more full-court stuff, and I think that really rattled them a little bit. I thought they turned the ball over a little bit more than they usually do.”

“It was totally uncharacteristic for us,” Thornton Academy head coach Eric Marston said of his team’s offensive woes. “We really haven’t had any problems with press (defense) all year. They were just extremely unfundamental against (Biddeford’s) pressure and it’s something that hasn’t bothered us all year and we just weren’t doing the things we do every day at practice.”

Roy was on fire from the start, nailing two consecutive 3-pointers to give Biddeford the quick 6-0 lead at the start of the game. Agger retaliated by scoring seven points in the quarter, and along with a 7-0 run, Thornton ended the first quarter with a 9-8 lead. Biddeford came back with an 8-0 run of its own in the second quarter, thanks to Michaud’s six points in the period, and the Tigers headed into the locker room at halftime with a 17-14 lead.

Points came at a premium in the second half, which is why the Tigers going 8 of 12 at the free-throw line became pivotal. Roy alone was 4 of 6 at the line, while Michaud was 5 of 6.

“We’ve been working on that in practice, because that’s going to win us games,” Roy said.

The Trojans (7-6), however, struggled at the line throughout the contest, going 10 of 19 in the game and 5 of 11 in the second half.

“It was obvious while it was happening that they were making their free throws and we were missing our free throws in the second half,” Marston said. “It’s always more glaring in the second half, but we missed some one-and-ones, and obviously in a tight game, those points are going to add up. It’s reflective of what happened. They made them, and we missed them.”

The contest remained back-and-forth until the fourth quarter, when a jump shot by freshman guard Carissa Gelinas gave Biddeford a 26-25 lead, one the Tigers never relinquished. In fact, the Tigers went on an 8-0 run to start the fourth to help claim the lead and seal Thornton’s fate. Though the Tigers have three wins on the season, a win over the Trojans gives Biddeford much needed Heal Points, and the Tigers still have a mathematical shot to go to the Western Maine Class A playoffs. The road will not be easy, however, as Biddeford plays Marshwood and Sanford before playing Thornton again, this time at Linnell Gym, in the regular season finale. But a win over Thornton, as Michaud said, helps give the Tigers confidence going forward.

“It opens our eyes and realize that we can beat these teams,” Michaud said. “It helps us.”

Thornton entered the contest ranked No. 6 in the conference, and the loss will hurt the Trojans’ playoff positioning. The Trojans, like Biddeford, have tough games down the stretch. Thornton will have to play Scarborough (ranked No. 1) and Cheverus (ranked No.7) within the final five games of the regular season. Thornton hosts Noble on Friday, while Biddeford hosts Marshwood in its next game, also scheduled for Friday.

— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535, Ext. 323.