SCARBOROUGH — After trailing at the half by seven points and seeing the deficit balloon to 11 early in the third quarter, the Sanford boys basketball team seemed to have righted the ship Thursday night.

Slowly chipping away at the Scarborough lead, the Spartans closed to within four when John Morgan finished a fast break by scoring off a Jordan Tranchemontagne feed to make it a 46-42 with 3:30 left in the quarter.

That, however, would be the Spartans’ high water mark.

As was the case for most of the game, Scarborough’s up-tempo, quick shooting offense and feisty man-to-man-defense were the driving forces over the next six minutes of the game, allowing the Red Storm to go on a 17-0 run to blow open what had been a close game on the way to a 72-48 victory.

It was just the second time Sanford (10-6) has allowed over 60 points in its last 11 games, a stretch when it has gone 9-2.

“The problem is we didn’t play our style of defense,” Sanford coach Paul Nolette said. “One is they came out and shot the ball well, but we didn’t close out well, we didn’t get any type of rotation and we didn’t rebound. And with a team that shoots the ball like they do, you can’t give them second chance opportunities.

“We’re not good enough to not do those things that we need to do.”

Starters Matt Hartl, Nate Wessel, Milani Hicks and Sam Freeman all scored in double digits for Scarborough ”“ which despite an 8-8 record came in as the third-highest scoring team in the league ”“ with Hartl leading the balanced attack with 19 points, including three 3-pointers

But it was a bench player who scored just four points who Storm coach Tony DiBiase credited with making the crucial difference real difference.

“I think the key the whole game was Alec Cohen playing great defense on Evyn Nolette,” said DiBiase of his senior guard’s defense on the Spartans’ point guard, who was held to 10 points. “He’s one of the better guys offensively in the league by far, and Cohen played tremendous defense on him and made him earn everything.

“By keeping Nolette kind of occupied, it not only helped us defensively, but it helped us offensively too because everybody got into the flow. That was the emphasis for what we had to do.”

Paul Nolette, who two nights earlier had seen his son put on a shooting display by hitting seven 3’s in a 33-point performance against Noble, agreed.

“They have traditionally been playing a 1-3-1 (zone), but they came out and played man and they really face-guarded Evyn to try to take him out of our flow,” Nolette said. “But the bottom line is we still had looks, and we uncharacteristically missed some shots from some key players. Some of those shots go, and momentum changes.”

Momentum looked about to change in the third quarter. After leading 37-30 at the break, Scarborough had stretched that advantage to 44-32 when Hicks completed a three-point play with 5:52 left in the third.

From there Sanford went on a run, scoring 10 of the next 12 points, six of them from Morgan (21 points) to cut the gap to four. But after being staggered, the Red Storm came back with a knock out blow of their own, scoring the next 17 points ”“ including 3’s by Hartl, Freeman and Cohen ”“ and forcing Sanford into missing 13-straight shots during the decisive six-minute stretch bridging the third and fourth quarters.

“They really broke our spirits in our run,” Nolette said. “Scarborough came out with a do or die attitude; they needed to get us to secure a playoff birth. And I think we came out with our regular attitude and didn’t match their intensity.”

Sanford has no such playoff worries, but the loss likely knocks the Spartans out of the running for a top-four finish in the Western Class A Heal Points, and as a result a first-round playoff bye.

But Sanford is still in pole position for hosting a preliminary-round game, a spot the Spartans could lock up as they finish out the regular season next week with games against Marshwood and Massabesic, two teams the they’ve already beaten this season.

“Who knows where we’ll drop if we don’t win those two games,” Nolette said. “We’re trying to get as high a seed as we can get to get a home prelim, and we need those wins just for confidence.”

— Staff Writer Cameron Dunbar can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or cdunbar@journaltribune.com.