BANGOR, Maine — What’s a long bus ride but a golden opportunity for a good nap when you’re a high school basketball player.
The Thornton Academy boys basketball team snoozed through a 150-mile trek north to the Queen City on Friday.
But by the time the undefeated Golden Trojans came out for the opening tip of their first-ever meeting on the hardwood against Bangor they were rested and ready, outscoring the Rams 20-2 during the game’s opening 10 minutes en route to a 58-46 victory in a Class AA crossover contest at Red Barry Gymnasium.
“The kids responded well right from the get go,” said Thornton Academy coach Bob Davies, whose team is now 9-0 as it enters the most pointworthy stretch of its schedule to date with consecutive games upcoming against Deering of Portland, Massabesic of Waterboro, South Portland and Portland.
“It’s something we’ve talked about, that when you’re going on a road trip you’ve got to be mentally prepared as well as physically prepared. At this age I don’t think it’s as much the physical part as it is the mental part, so it was really good to see that mentally they were ready to go.”
Were they ever.
Bangor (2-8) made just one of its first 18 field-goal attempts against Thornton’s defense, and when the Golden Trojans missed their shots they were active on the offensive backboards — outrebounding the Rams 20-11 during the first half while building a 30-10 advantage on the scoreboard.
“Defensively we did real well,” said TA senior guard Ben Lambert. “We made them take a bunch of contested shots and they fell our way.
“On the way up all of us slept, and we hadn’t played since Tuesday so we had our legs today.”
Bangor — facing its seventh undefeated opponent of the season — mounted a spirited response after intermission, using its 2-2-1 press and an offense led by Justin Smith to draw as close as 40-32 with 6:26 left in the game after the senior forward followed up a 3-pointer with two free throws.
Thornton withstood that challenge largely with the 3-point shot, as Lambert struck twice from beyond the arc and Rome Pura added a third stroke from long distance to help restore the Golden Trojans to a 52-34 lead on a free throw by senior point guard Jack Tilley with 3:04 remaining.
Lambert finished with a game-high 20 points and six rebounds, scoring 14 of his points in the second half on 4-of-5 shooting from 3-point land and 5-of-7 shooting overall.
Tilley added 14 points — 11 during the first half — to go with five rebounds and four assists for Thornton, while sophomore forward Corey Hart scored nine points and Pura contributed six points and seven rebounds.
Smith led Bangor with 19 points and eight rebounds, while senior point guard Ethan Dorman had seven points and five assists and junior guard Logan Alley also scored seven points.
