SACO — The saying usually goes, “it’s not how you start, but how you finish.”

Tell that to the Thornton Academy girls basketball team.

Not only did the Golden Trojans start quickly in their Western Maine Class A preliminary game against South Portland on Wednesday night at Linnell Gym, but they finished strongly, and in the in-between, dominated South Portland, beating the Red Riots 50-30.

“We challenged the girls a little bit before the start of the game,” Thornton Academy head coach Eric Marston said. “We wanted to come out and play as hard as we could, and I think we did.”

Thornton (11-8), the No. 6 ranked team in the conference, will play against No. 3 Marshwood (15-3) on Monday at the Portland Expo. The Hawks have been one of the most dangerous teams in Class A this season, with one of the top scorers in the SMAA in guard Aubrey Folger. It also has strong presence in the post with forward Jorden Mitchell. The two teams met on Jan. 10, where the Hawks beat the Trojans 45-36.

But on Wednesday night, it was all Thornton.

After the Riots took a 2-0 lead on a basket by Jill Legere, the Trojans responded with a 10-0 run. The defense also responded, holding South Portland scoreless the rest of the quarter.

“Defense is what got us going,” Marston said. “They had a hard time scoring against us in the halfcourt. We were denying off the ball pretty well, got some turnovers and got some easy baskets to start us off, which is what we were hoping to do.”

“We just wanted to keep the game close, with an opportunity to win at the end,” South Portland head coach Mike Giordano said. “We never really got to that point tonight.”

Thornton upped the lead in the second quarter, heading into halftime with a 19-10 advantage.

If that wasn’t enough, the Trojans scored their first half total in the third quarter alone, outscoring South Portland 19-10, before closing the contest out in the fourth.

“We knew we had to come out with a lot of energy,” Thornton forward Olivia Shaw said. “Just work really hard on defense. We played man-to-man, and we knew we could lock up, because that’s what we did against them in the first half of the last game.”

The Trojans boasted one of their most well-rounded games of the season offensively. Shaw led Thornton with a game-high 13 points. She was followed Jordan Agger scored 12 points, and Meghan Agger ”“ Jordan’s sister ”“ scored eight.

“We can’t just have one person take the team on their shoulders,” Shaw said. “We have to have the entire team scoring. Even scoring is better, and it was good tonight. We had a lot of people step up and make shots.”

There was no lack of effort by South Portland (7-12) throughout the entire evening, but turnovers and offensive woes hurt the Riots throughout the game. TA forced 22 South Portland turnovers.

“Too many turnovers, too many missed opportunities, and a credit to Thornton’s defense,” Giordano said. “I think those three things kind of spelled us getting in a hole right away.”

Brianne Maloney and Libby Grant led the Red Riots with six points each.

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