SANFORD — Under head coach Kristy Parent, the Sanford girls basketball team has been a unit that prides itself on ”“ and builds itself around ”“ solid team defense. That made Monday night’s win against Thornton Academy all the more satisfying, Parent said.

The Spartans’ stifling man-to-man defense limited the Golden Trojans to just seven points in the first half on 2-of-20 shooting, and forced 11 Thornton turnovers in the second half on the way to a 42-23 win at Veterans Memorial Gym. It was the fewest amount of points Sanford has allowed this season, and the lowest it’s kept an opposing team to since allowing 18 to Kennebunk on Jan. 28, 2010.

“I’m a defensive-minded coach, so it’s kind of a focus of ours,” Parent said. “We were just talking about our defense, and I think we have to have all five kids clicking at the same time, and we did, so overall it was very positive.”

With only eight healthy players available to him due to injury and sickness, Thornton head coach Eric Marston said he knew that for his team to have a chance to win it would have to slow the game down. For the most part, TA was successful in that effort on the defensive end by utilizing a 2-3 zone that forced Sanford to stay patient all night.

But the lack of a true point guard hurt the Trojans at the other end as they failed to take advantage of their superior size and penetrate into the Spartans’ paint, while also continually turning the ball over at key moments.

“We were certainly shorthanded, but that’s no excuse for the mental mistakes that we made and just didn’t execute, and that was where our downfall was,” Marston said. “We worked very hard on the defensive end of the court, and then we just turned it over repeatedly.

“It was a frustrating situation for us to be undermanned and work as hard as we were on the defensive end of the court, and then just turn it over repeatedly and not get into the semblance of any kind of offense.”

Sam Adams took advantage of the Trojans’ zone hitting four 3-pointers, scoring 16 points to lead the way on the offensive end for Sanford, while Morgan Fogg chipped in 15 while running her team’s zone offense from the point guard position.

“It’s tricky, you’ve just got to be patient with the ball and not stay stationary,” Fogg said. “Coach just kept telling us to move around and keep passing and not get out of it.”

Fogg got Sanford on the scoreboard first when she completed a three-point play on her team’s first possession for a lead they’d never give up. Thornton’s Tori Lands answered with a jumper to make it 3-2, but after that, the Trojans went cold, missing their next 14 shots, as Sanford built its lead to 17-5 midway through the second quarter.

A layup from Abigail Strickland, part of her team-high 12 points, ended Thornton’s drought with an inside shot with 2:41 to play in the second, the last points of the half as the teams entered halftime with the score at 17-7.

Out of the break, Sanford missed its first eight shots of the second half. The Trojans scored five straight points, cutting the lead to five midway through the third.

But that was the closest they’d get, as a Shelby Paiement’s 12-footer ended Sanford’s cold streak and the Spartans closed the quarter on an 8-3 run. Fogg capped the spurt with a runner as the buzzer expired and Sanford closed out the 19-point victory.

“We had some good looks certainly and a few opportunities where we cut into the lead considerably,” Marston said. “We felt like we were in it, we just knew that we had to get a few balls to bounce our way and knock down some shots, and we just didn’t do that.

“Every time we had a chance to make a run, we had another foolish turnover or we just didn’t capitalize on the mistakes they made, and they did capitalize on the mistakes we made. My hat goes off to Sanford. They played a heck of a ball game.”

Sanford moved to 7-3 on the year with the win, dropping Thornton down to 6-5 in the process. The victory also moved the Spartans past the Trojans into sixth in the Western Class A Heal Points standings, and the importance of getting a quality victory on their resume wasn’t lost on Sanford.

“It’s huge. They’re a really well-rounded team, and they’ll get us points from beating other teams, so this was a really important one for us to win,” Fogg said.

“Thornton Academy overall is a good program,” Parent said. “When they get a couple of their kids back, they might make a good push toward the end of the season, so it was very important for us to get this win.”

Sanford will look to extend its winning streak to three on Friday night when it travels to Massabesic for a rivalry game, while Thornton will look to rebound on Thursday night when it takes on Portland at the Expo. Getting some players back will clearly be a big factor for the Trojans, but Marston also zeroed in on another part of his team’s game that will need to improve moving forward, he said.

“I thought our effort was outstanding but our mental effort is not where it needs to be,” he said. “We’re just making far too many mental mistakes with the turnovers and not executing, and that’s what’s separating us.

“Obviously getting healthy will help us tremendously, but we’re controlling what we can control and playing with the players that we’ve got on every given night, so that’s what we’re doing.

— Contact Cameron Dunbar at 282-1535, Ext. 323.