The first tournament game is often the hardest.  Many at the Wareham High School gymnasium might agree after the Wareham boys varsity basketball team slogged to a 76-57 win over Seekonk on Thursday night.

This was the third time this season Wareham has played the Seekonk Warriors, and in both of the earlier games the Vikings scored easily and often, racking up 113 points in each game and winning effortlessly.  This was not the case Tuesday evening, where Seekonk played a strong zone defense and produced just enough offense to keep the Wareham team from running away with the game.

Wareham could not find its outside shooting touch or fast-break running room for much of the game, and had to rely instead on strong interior play from Jordan Rezendes (22 points) Ryan Pina (18 points), and Pat Murphy (15 points).  Seekonk senior guard Ricky Silva was able to knife through Wareham's man-to-man defense for 17 points, with teammates Jacob Silva and Sean Heaney each adding 13.

Seekonk took a brief first quarter lead at 6-5, but Wareham was able to apply just enough defense and offense to end the quarter with a 17-8 lead.  It looked as though the Vikings were going to find their normal game when they stretched the lead to 33-16 at the half and showed the kind of flash the raucous home-town crowd has grown to expect this season.  Jordan Rezendes and Jules Tavares teamed up once again for a highlight dunk by Tavares in the second quarter, and the crowd began to anticipate another blow-out win.

But Seekonk would not be intimidated and did not let the Vikings explode in the second half as they had done in their earlier regular season games.  Although the Viking boys would make spurts to expand their lead to as much as 24 points, Seekonk found a way to stay closer than expected.

With a 16-point lead (71-55) with 3:21 remaining in the 4th quarter, Wareham slowed the pace to ensure the win and a spot in the third round of the tournament against Martha's Vineyard on Saturday, Feb. 27.

Martha's Vineyard beat Rockland 70-62 to earn its chance to challenge Wareham.  The location of the game has not been announced.