Mike Wenners, the Central girls basketball coach, admitted he’d rather forget the tough conclusion to the Little Green’s otherwise successful season. What will stick in his memory is the effort and determination his young squad utilized to reach the Class L semifinals.

“I’m very proud of them because we only returned three girls that played last year (and finished state runner-up), and we definitely made some significant gains this season,” said Wenners following Central’s 74-35 loss on Tuesday, March 10, to two-time defending champ Winnacunnet.

“We were very young and very inexperienced, and they worked so hard to get us back to the semifinals. It’s a credit to their work ethic and to them as competitors we even got back to this point.”

Central completed a 13-5 regular season, earned the tournament’s fifth seed and defended its home court with a 45-37 firstround victory against No. 12 Nashua North.

That set up a quarterfinalround matchup at fourth-seeded Londonderry, which beat CHS, 63-54, on Feb. 17.

Not only did the Little Green avenge the regular-season setback, they decisively won, 46-34, to set up a rematch of last year’s title game with Winnacunnet.

“To go back there and win a playoff game on (Londonderry’s) court after losing by nine earlier in the year, it was a great team win for sure,” said Wenners. “I’m pleasantly surprised where we finished this year, and my expectation is to build off that next year and get back to here.”

Plenty of talent returns, including leading scorer Christiana Bakolas and junior classmate Sam Walker of Hooksett.

“I don’t have captains, but Sam and Christiana are both going to be four-year varsity players. They were leaders this year, and I’ll definitely be leaning on them next year to help get this team back to Southern New Hampshire (University),” said Wenners. “Defensively, Sam causes so much chaos out on the floor with the way she plays. She’s very tough, and for a kid that’s 5- foot-3, I’ll tell you, she plays a lot bigger and stronger than that out on the floor.”

Candia’s Kaleigh Gibbons, a junior, is also expected to play a key role next year as well.