GRANBY — A see-saw first half between the No. 3 Granby boys basketball team and No. 19 Rockport ended with an 8-2 Rams run thanks to a pair of Cody Breault 3-pointers. Granby headed to the locker room ahead 29-23. The two sides traded field goals out of the break to make it 31-25, then Vikings guard Josiah Whitley took over.

Whitley scored 13 of the game’s next 15 points as part of a 15-0 Rockport avalanche that put the visitors ahead 40-31 early in the fourth. Granby missed several quality close-range looks, and only scored two points in the third quarter.

From there the hosts had to play catch up, and although the Rams got back within three points, they could never regain control of the contest. The Vikings – which beat No. 14 Lee in the Round of 32 – came into Granby and defeated the No. 3 seed in Division 5, bouncing the Rams via a 51-46 defeat in the MIAA Round of 16 on Monday night.

“That’s where the game was decided,” Rams head coach Dylan Dubuc said of the third frame. “We came out of the break and had three great looks. Like, really good looks. And we didn’t score. And when you don’t score, you don’t get to set up your press, and then you’re running down and you’re trying to get your matchups. They’ve got a couple of guys that can score the ball. I said to them at halftime, ‘Let’s go throw the first punch. If we do that, maybe we get them on their heels a little bit...’ They’ve got some special players that can make special plays. They made more shots than us down the stretch.”

After finding itself in a nine-point hole in the final quarter, Granby dug in – as any championship team would do. The Rams are used to trailing by nine, as they erased that very same deficit in the Western Mass. Class C championship against Drury two Saturdays ago. Sawyer Clarke banked home a layup and NeNe Fernandez scored consecutive field goals to cut it to 40-37.

But Chase Wheat swished home a clutch 3 on the other end, and the Rams never got closer than four again. Rockport took care of the ball against Granby’s press when it had to and Whitley fittingly made a pair from the line to seal the deal.

Even when trailing late, Granby continued to scrap and claw with Fernandez leading the charge. He scored seven points in the final three minutes to give his team a chance.

“That’s what these guys do. They stick together as a group and play hard for 32 minutes,” Dubuc said. “Up or down, it doesn’t matter. They play the whole time. So that’s not surprising.”

Fernandez is one of nine seniors on Granby’s roster, alongside Clarke, Breault, Raymond D. Colon, Brennan Dwyer, Riley Goodhind, Gavin Moreno, Cody White and Junior Alcantara Garces. It’s one of the biggest senior classes Dubuc has ever seen, and one that helped bring him Granby’s first Western Mass. title since 2005.

Despite an earlier exit than the Rams were hoping for, they still put together an incredible season that featured the WMass crown as well as a Bi-County League West championship for the third straight year.

It’s a team that will go down in the history books at Granby.

“One game doesn’t define our season,” Dubuc said. “We had a hell of a run. These guys have been unbelievable for the last six years, but the last two years [especially], competing at the Western Mass. level and competing at the state level. It’s tough… But I tried to tell [the seniors] that this game doesn’t define your season and what you guys have done for this program.”

Nineteen points from Fernandez led the way for the Rams. Goodhind scored 10, Breault cashed in three of the four 3s he took en route to nine points, Clarke chipped in six points and Moreno added a fastbreak layup to round out Granby’s scoring.

The 51 points that Dubuc’s squad gave up have typically been more than enough to get the job done for the Rams’ high-flying offense. If Granby gave up 51 points in every game this year, it would have won all but two games. However on Monday, Granby simply struggled to make shots. The Rams generated clean looks, but nothing fell consistently enough to knock off the pesky Vikings.

“If we hold teams to 51, we expect to win a lot of games,” Dubuc said. “Unfortunately, we didn’t shoot it well enough tonight near the basket or on the 3 line. That’s the difference.”

Granby, which had a six-game winning streak halted, finished the season 18-5 overall while Rockport travels to the winner of Tuesday’s matchup between No. 6 Duggan and No. 11 Westport for a state quarterfinal game.