The Wareham Vikings, on the heels of their South Division 3 Championship title and their first undefeated regular season since at least 1972, lost the Division 3 semi-final game 68-45 against the Danvers Falcons on Monday, March 12 at TD Garden in Boston.

The Vikings took the South Division 3 after a 70-65 win against Martha's Vineyard on Saturday and a 72-65 win over Cardinal Spellman on March 7.

"[A] 24-0 [record coming into] the East Coast [semi-finals], that's a sign of a team that has been working hard," said Coach Kevin Brogioli after the team's loss. "[I'm] really proud of [the] guys … [they] represented Wareham proudly tonight."

Wareham started off promising on Monday with a quick 2-pointer by senior Darien Fernandes but wasn't able to maintain the lead as Danvers pulled ahead with an 8-5 lead 3 minutes into the first quarter.

Danvers kept the lead for the rest of the first half.

Whether it was the tall and formidable line-up of the Falcons or just the impersonal atmosphere of the TD Garden, the Wareham boys didn't seem to get in their usual stride and failed to connect on field goals or even passes throughout the night.

"[You've] got to give credit to Danvers defense, they got us out of our sync tonight …[and] we didn't pick up the tempo consistently enough," said Brogioli.

The 6'5" Wareham junior Jeff Houde worked hard at the boards and made 5 out of 6 free throw attempts to garner a total of 14 points during the game. Darien Fernandes pushed to the basket to earn 19 points in addition to a few steals.

Aaron Baptiste also added 8 points to the Vikings' scoreboard. But Wareham couldn't convert on fast break turnovers and missed lay-ups and quick passes that all-too-often slipped through the players' hands and fell out-of-bounds.

Part of the reason was the towering nature of the Danvers line-up. Danvers senior George Merry, at a height of 6'7", completed 8 out of 10 free throws and made numerous lay-ups off of inside passes to earn 22 points for the night. Junior Nick Bates, at 6'3", and junior Nick McKenna, at 6'2", each added 17 and 12 points to the Falcon scoreboard respectively.

Some of those points were made off of the many offensive rebounds the Falcons grabbed all through the night.

"[Coach Brogioli said] we could win if we got rebounds," said guard Fernandes after the game. "They're just big. We couldn't get rebounds."

The Vikings ended the first half down 8 points with a score of 30-22, but still hopeful that they could get their stride back. The team stormed the court in the beginning of the second half and got a boost from a quick 3-pointer from senior guard Stefan Monteiro.

Aaron Baptiste sunk another 3-pointer, which was followed by two more 2-point field goals from fellow teammates, and the Vikings had taken the lead for the second time in the game at 32-30 after only two minutes of game play in the third quarter.

It looked like the old Vikings were back and seemed poised to take the offensive, but the Falcons answered with three straight 3-pointers in a little over a minute, putting the score at 39-32, taking both the lead and the steam from the Vikings.

"All the momentum we had, [we] could feel it evaporate at that point," said Brogioli.

After another two points from Fernandes, the Falcons went on another 11-0 run to make the score 50-34.

Still, Wareham pushed forward, and the crowd could be heard chanting "Let's go Wareham," even as the Vikings were down 20 points 3 minutes into the fourth quarter.

But the rest of the game belonged to the Falcons, who kept rebounding, forcing turnovers and making their shots to win the game 68-45.

"My hats off to [the Vikings]," said Coach John Walsh whose Danvers team will play the St. Joseph Central High School Crusaders of Pittsfield in the title game at the DCU Center in Worcester on Saturday. "They're a fantastic team. They'll be back next year."