SCARBOROUGH — Caroline Hartley is gaining confidence, and along with her skyrocketing points production has come victories for the Scarborough girls’ basketball team.

Hartley, a junior forward, scored 25 points – including 16 in the second half – as the Red Storm defeated visiting Sanford, 53-38, for their third victory in four outings on Wednesday afternoon at Plummer Gymnasium.

“I think that it just took me a while to understand how teams were going to play me,” said Hartley, who also had 10 rebounds. “Now that I know what other teams are doing to try to keep me from scoring, I can use that to my advantage.”

Scarborough (5-7) came out sizzling, making 3 of 4 of its 3-point attempts in the first period, with the lone miss going in and out.

Ellie Rumelhart hit a 3-pointer to put the Red Storm ahead for good and Julia Black and Emerson Flaker added long-rang bombs as Scarborough opened up a 19-9 advantage after one period.

“We need some balance, it can’t all be Caroline,” said Red Storm Coach Mike Giordano. “If we get scoring somewhere else, we’ll be alright.”

Neither team was able to generate much offense in the second quarter, but five points from Hartley and four from Isabel Freedman helped the Red Storm extend their lead to 28-13 at the half.

Sanford Coach Rossie Kearson didn’t want to blame his team’s slow start on the unorthodox 4:30 p.m. start time.

“We still had to come play and (Scarborough) came to play,” Kearson said. “Scarborough started hot and we struggled offensively. It was our lowest point total of the season.”

Sanford awakened in the third period. After falling behind by 19, the Spartans drew within 11 at 39-28 when Shelby McLeod capped a seven-point quarter with a jumper at the horn.

But Scarborough didn’t buckle as Hartley made a layup after a steal to start the fourth, then hit two free throws, drove for a layup and made another layup to give the Red Storm a 47-30 lead which proved insurmountable.

“Caroline’s confidence has grown,” Giordano said. “It’s just maturity. She’s maturing in front of our eyes and that’s the most fun thing about what I do, to watch that.”

Freedman added eight points and Flaker had seven for the Red Storm, who swept the season series against the Spartans.

“I think our defense is a major key to our game,” Hartley said. “The energy we bring on defense helped us glide through the game. Our defense helps us on offense, the turnovers, steals and rebounds.”

Sanford (7-5) was paced by 11 points from Julissa McBarron, while Ava Hudson and Sadie Sevigny added eight apiece.

“Hats off to Scarborough for what they did to us defensively,” Kearson said. “We couldn’t get out of our own way offensively. Anyone can beat anyone in our league on a given night and we’re figuring that out. We just need to get back to what we were doing and playing the defense we’re capable of playing. We’ve gotten hot before.”