RANDOLPH — Last year’s young Thetford Academy boys basketball team somewhat slipped under the radar en route to a state championship.

Now, with another year of experience, the Panthers have a target clearly on their backs — but also the veteran resolve to get the job done even when everything isn’t falling their way.

The Panthers demonstrated that resolve Friday night, rallying on the road past a much-improved Randolph team to win, 57-51, on a poor shooting night and improve to 3-0 on the year.

Thetford trailed 27-19 at halftime but ran off a 6-0 run to pull ahead late in the third quarter, then iced the game with a 7-0 run early in the fourth quarter to put away the Galloping Ghosts despite some late action. Randolph never got the lead down to one possession in the final six minutes.

“We haven’t been on the court for 14 days game-wise, so we just needed to get back acclimated. We haven’t really had an offensive organizer, so we’re looking for that,” Thetford coach Jason Gray said postgame.

Hunter Clay led the Panthers with 18 points despite not scoring from outside the paint, instead converting a bevy of layups, putbacks and fast-break buckets following steals. Thetford forced 15 second-half turnovers and turned close to half of them into runout points.

“That’s what we pride ourselves on,” Gray said of the Panther defense. “We’re not the most skilled team offensively; we don’t have someone who can score 40 points. … If we can turn teams over we can get layups, and layups are givens.”

Thetford needed to tighten up its defense against a two-headed assault from the Ghosts. Smooth senior guard Shea Fontanella scored 24 points with a great display of shooting and got great support from towering center Eli Messier. Messier, who stands around 6-foot-6 as a freshman, provided a tough challenge for an undersized Thetford frontcourt, but Gray was proud of how his team responded.

“We worked hard; we played hard against him. We knew he could get his, but we just had to make sure the rest of the team didn’t get theirs,” Gray said.

Indeed, this was true. Fontanella and Messier combined for 37 points, but the rest of the team only managed 14 points and Messier was held without a make from the floor in the second half with the Panther defense throwing an array of traps his way.

Despite being undefeated through three games, Thetford is still looking for a player to step into a lead role when the offense stalls after the graduation of star forward Mitchell Parkman, the lone departure from the championship squad.

Does Thetford feel the target on their backs?

“Of course,” said Gray. “I tell the guys everybody’s after us because we won the championship last year and brought a whole lot of guys back. We have to be mentally and physically tough.”

The Panthers begin a rapid-fire stretch of games, taking on Oxbow on Monday night before hosting Peoples and then traveling to Hazen for a state championship rematch with the Wildcats on Saturday.