The Wareham girls basketball team ended its postseason run with a 29-39 loss against Saint Bernards High School on Tuesday, Feb. 27. 

Despite that early exit, the team's season can't be seen as anything but a success, said Head Coach Mike Fortune. 

At least — it won’t be, once the dust has settled.

"I don't think we see it that way this very minute," he said, speaking the day after the game. "I know they didn't see it that way last night."

The Vikings started strong in their playoff game, and went up by one point at halftime before falling short by 10 in the fourth quarter. 

The game was winnable for Wareham, Fortune said. But St. Bernard "were well coached, a good team and they played physical," which shut down a lot of the Vikings' offense.

"We played really hard all the way to the end — I was proud of them," he added. 

The season as a whole was the most successful in years for the Wareham High School girls varsity basketball program. 

The team went 15-7 throughout the season and made the program's first playoff appearance since the spring of 2018. 

It put up those numbers coming off a 3-17 season the previous year, and with a roster comprised of very young players — it included only three seniors and no juniors, along with a large contingent of eighth-grade students. 

The eighth-graders are a talented group, and the team as a whole is a "great group of girls," said Fortune. He's looking forward to building up the program more in succeeding years and is hoping to get more girls to participate with basketball in Wareham. 

"They fought hard all season; they played hard all season," said Fortune.