The Wareham girls basketball team battled Dighton-Rehoboth to a close 44-54 loss in the season opener Friday, Dec. 13.

Dighton-Rehoboth took the lead early and stretched their point advantage to 20 in the first quarter. However by the end of the second quarter Wareham had cut the lead to only four four points.

With six minutes left in the fourth quarter Dighton-Rehoboth had reestablished a commanding 18 point lead. However the Vikings rallied, scoring eight unanswered before time expired with junior Johnny Tompkins and freshman Jordyn Elwood leading the charge.

Head coach Mike Fortune said his team “did a lot of good things” Friday night.

“The fact that we lost to this team by 10 and we were within four at one point, I’m pretty happy overall,” Fortune said.

This year will mark Fortune's second season with the Vikings, last year he led the team to a 15-7 record, exiting the playoffs in the first round.

Prior to Fortune, Viking girls basketball saw a revolving door of head coaches with their last positive record in the 2017-18 season.

Last year's winning record marked the start of what Fortune said he hoped would be a chance to build.

However, this year only three players from last season returned and many are new to high school play and to the sport.

“We’ve got a couple girls that have never really played, a bunch that have never played at this speed and at this level. It's going to take us a couple of games to get our feet under us,” Fortune said. “I’m hoping we can stay solid and continue to grow every game."