North Stonington — This season was supposed to be so many things for the Wheeler High School girls' basketball team:

A season to build on last year's 13-10 record and first-round Class S state tournament victory over Bolton, Wheeler's first state victory in five years.

A season for senior starters and tri-captains Molly Butremovic, Annie Dussault and Grace Armstrong to play together one last time, Butremovic and Dussault who have known each other since kindergarten and won a championship together in eighth grade — what Butrmovic calls "one of the best days ever."

And then came the reality of the season. There have been two separate quarantines due to COVID-19, leaving the Lions just a four-game regular season.

They played for the first time earlier this week against Griswold, then their only regular-season home game of the season Friday night against Killingly in the Eastern Connecticut Conference North Division, falling to 0-2 with a 49-39 loss.

But despair over their circumstances? Blame the loss on the rust that came from the multiple layoffs?

No chance.

"To me, there were no mistakes made," said second-year coach Dan McClure, who coached the game Friday, in which Wheeler trailed by just two in the third quarter, like it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals. "My kids played their butt off. They showed a commitment to a season which by all means they could cash out on.

"I'm on cloud nine."

McClure said the team had high expectations after last season, the players having just learned to be confident in their abilities. He's admired the way they've gone about coming to play despite their disappointments. He calls Butremovic, an ECC Division IV honorable mention all-star last year, "the emotional heartbeat of this program."

"I've never seen something mean so much to a kid," McClure said of Butremovic's approach to the game.

Addie Hauptmann had 18 points and five rebounds and Butremovic 13 points and eight rebounds for the Lions against Killingly.

A basket by Wheeler's Leah Pion pulled the team to within 31-29 with 2 minutes, 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter before Killingly's Emma Carpenter landed her fourth 3-pointer of the game and Molly Crabtree followed with a three-point play to push the lead back to 37-29.

Carpenter had 18 points for Killingly, last year's ECC Division III champion.

"Sitting on the couch watching other teams' games get live-streamed (on the web) when you're supposed to be playing can get your hopes down," Butremovic said. "But we're here. We're back. ... Coach Dan and coach Vanessa (Kobyluck, former Waterford standout and McClure's assistant coach) keep telling us to play every game like it's our last because it could be. We're just trying to have as much fun as ever."

"We're trying to put our all into these games," Armstrong said.

The trio of seniors credits McClure, a former Waterford assistant under Mark Capasso, for the infusion of energy upon his arrival last year.

"The second he walked into the gym, the intensity rose," Butremovic said. "Every game's a championship game for him. People used to think when you played Wheeler it was an easy win. Coach Dan changed all that."

The seniors labeled last year's 41-34 win over Montville on Senior Night as one of the best memories in their home gym. And Butremovic had something to add.

"We should note that we literally have the best fans in the world," she said. "Even though they can't come to games, just to know they're watching from home, it's nice having people support us."

v.fulkerson@theday.com