SCARBOROUGH — At the beginning of the season, there weren’t many people expecting the Scarborough High girls’ basketball team to be one of the top teams in Class AA South.

But the Red Storm have certainly proven to be just that.

Tuesday night, Scarborough overcame an early deficit to surge past upstart Sanford 55-39 at Alumni Gym. The Spartans had a seven-point lead midway through the second before Scarborough closed the first half with a 12-3 run and then slowly pulled away in the final two quarters.

“I thought at the four-minute mark of the second quarter we started to impose our will a little bit,” said Scarborough Coach Mike Giordano. “I just think that they came ready to play a little harder than we were and  it just took us a little while to get going.

“As I told the girls after, ‘We’ve won eight out of nine or something like that. So now you’re the hunted and you’ve got to be ready for a team’s best effort right from the get-go.’ ”

Scarborough, ranked second in AA South, improved to 11-3 (winning its ninth game out of 10), while Sanford dropped to 4-9.

Two things happened midway through the second quarter in this one. Scarborough’s defense turned up the pressure and freshman Ellie Rumelhart entered the game.

Sanford built its early lead on some outstanding shooting by Julissa McBarron (15 points) and Riley Hebler (10 points). But with the Spartans leading 19-12, Scarborough clamped down, harassing anyone who touched the ball and taking Sanford out of any rhythm.

Rumelhart, meanwhile, scored two baskets in the second quarter, her second – a fastbreak layup off a pass from Lindsay Fiorillo — tying the game at 22 with 1:08 remaining in the first half. Una Djuranovic gave the Red Storm a 24-22 halftime lead with a driving basket.

Scarborough immediately pushed the lead to nine in the third. But Sanford got it back to four, at 31-27, on a 3-pointer by Jaylyn Bartolome with 3:41 remaining. Rumelhart (13 points) and Fiorillo (19 points) followed with two foul shots each, then Caroline Hartley (10 points) scored inside to make it 37-27.

Sanford would cut it to five before Rumelhart scored inside to give the Red Storm a 39-32 lead into the fourth. There, Scarborough slowly pulled away, scoring inside or hitting free throws.

“We just went cold,” said Sanford Coach Rossie Lontine-Kearson. “And Scarborough is very solid, especially at home. Mike’s always had very solid teams.

“We had to keep it clean and not make mistakes. We had to play an A-plus game and hope they played a C-plus game.”

Sanford committed 21 turnovers in the game, many coming at crucial moments.

Fiorillo knew why: “Our defense in the second half. It was a little rough at the start, but we stepped it up. Defense is what keeps us in games. We rely on it.”

Rumelhart helped too. Once she entered the game, Scarborough’s offense got into a nice flow. “Watching on the bench helps me see what people aren’t doing and what they are doing,” she said. “And in the first half we weren’t rebounding that well so offensively I tried to rebound.”

Fiorillo said the team balance is very instrumental to Scarborough’s success. “I think everyone on our team is capable,” she said. “And if we all do what we can to help this team, we’ll be good.”