SACO – To say Thornton Academy burst out of the gates in its first boys’ basketball meeting of the season against heated rival Biddeford would be a supreme understatement.

The Trojans enjoyed two 10-0 runs in the opening quarter on their way to a 78-49 victory in a Southern Maine Activities Association game played Tuesday night.

“They just came out with more intensity,” said high-scoring Biddeford guard Bobby Cote. “Maybe it wasn’t even just that. They pretty much just killed us. The start was probably the worst part of the game, but it didn’t get much better after that.”

Thornton Academy, which has won five of its last six to improve to 9-4, didn’t waste any time jumping on the Tigers (6-7). The Trojans jumped out to a 10-0 lead before the game was three minutes old. Cote momentarily interrupted the Trojans’ quick start with a free throw, but back-to-back 3-pointers by Quinn Richardson-Newton and Justin Pollard kick-started another 10-0 run that gave the Trojans a 20-1 lead.

Cote managed to salvage something from the quarter for the Tigers with five points in the final minute, but Biddeford still trailed 20-6.

“With the rivalry, we just tried to come out and play our game,” said Richardson-Newton, who finished with 16 points. “Yeah (we got the early lead), but we couldn’t stop playing. We had to keep going like the score was 0-0.”

And that they did. The Trojans continued to carry the play in the second quarter and led 41-23 at halftime.

“We are getting better every day and the kids are having fun playing,” said Trojans Coach Bob Davies. “They are hustling and playing defense and feeding off each other.”

The second half didn’t offer any surprises. The Trojans opened the third quarter with a 13-5 run and stretched their advantage to 58-30 after three.

“The first thing I told the kids in the locker room, ‘You have to match their intensity early. If you don’t they are going to blow you out,’ ” said Biddeford Coach Mike Fecteau. “They came out and hit some shots and played well early on, and shots weren’t falling for us.

“When you get behind like that you start forcing things, trying to make things happen. We didn’t play good team basketball tonight and that has something to do with TA playing well.”

Pollard was one of three Trojans to reach double-digits in scoring, finishing with 19 points. Connor McCrum added 12.

Cote, who has led the Tigers in scoring in all but one game this season, had 14 points for Biddeford.