Tournament games are supposed to be tougher than regular season play, as the Wareham boys varsity basketball team has been discovering.  Fortunately for them, their hard work continued to pay off Wednesday evening with the reward being their 3rd straight tournament victory beating a scrappy Bishop Feehan Shamrocks team 79-65.

Playing in Taunton, it was deja vu of their Saturday game against Martha's Vineyard.  "This game was a lot like our game against Martha's Vineyard", Viking Coach Kevin Brogioli said.  "And you'd expect that - they (Bishop Feehan and Martha's Vineyard) split their games this year.  Bishop Feehan is a tough team."

Bishop Feehan stayed with the favored Vikings most of the game.  Wareham led 26-16 at the end of the first quarter, but fell behind by two at 37-35 with a minute left in the half.  A spurt put them back up by two 39-37 to end the half.  Jordan Rezendes and Ryan Pina played well on both ends in the first half, with Rezendes netting 11 of his 16 points, and Pina accounting for 12 of 21.

As was the case Saturday against Martha's Vineyard, the Shamrocks stayed close to Wareham with strong defense and good-enough shooting, particularly at the free-throw line where they made 22 of 25 (88%) for game.  At the 3:40 mark of the 3rd quarter, Bishop Feehan held a 46-45 lead, but less than a minute later at 2:45 Wareham bounced back to a 51-46 lead and never looked back.

Wareham never dominated the 4th quarter, but held on to win comfortably by 14 points.  Ryan Pina led the Vikings with 21 points, followed by Jordan Rezendes with 16 and Pat Murphy with 15.

The highlight of the game for Bishop Feehan was Senior Ryan Sheehan scoring his 1000th career point.  He received congratulations from his teammates and Wareham players alike.

Wareham will next play a noontime game on Saturday, March 6 at UMass Boston against #1 seeded Cardinal Spellman, who beat Abington 62-52 Wednesday evening.