Bruce Robinson stood in a back hallway at Clinton High School last week, trying to process Warren Central’s latest misfire in the Division 4-6A tournament.

The loss, and the tournament in general, were devastating. The Vikings lost by 15 points to Greenville in the first round and by 18 to Clinton in the third-place game on Friday to end their season.

“That’s the biggest thing that I take as a disappointment. Not starting off behind, playing hard and cutting it,” Robinson said after WC had cut a 16-point deficit to six before eventually losing 62-44 to Clinton. “Just being No. 4 again, two years in a row. It’s not good for the program.”

In a dark hour, however, there was still plenty for Robinson and his players to be optimistic about.

Only two seniors, forward JaQuan Woods and guard Travonta Miller, are graduating. The list of returnees includes Shaun Walton and Chavis Smith, the team’s top two scorers. And the division tournament is at Warren Central next season.

It’s a laundry list of assets that Robinson is hoping will strengthen the program and push it to the next level in the 2016-17 season.

“We played two freshmen a couple of games. You’ve got your leading scorer coming back and the district (tournament) is at Warren Central next year. I think that’s going to be a tremendous advantage to us,” Robinson said. “We’re going to get better. There’s some things I know I need to do to get us better.”

The biggest of those is finding some size and rebounding. The team’s leaders in that category this season were Woods and Walton, both of whom averaged just 2.4 per game. Walton is a shooting guard who grabbed most of his rebounds by being quick on the offensive end.

Walton (17.1 points per game) and Smith (9.3 ppg) both shot better than 30 percent from 3-point range, however.

Another big issue for the Vikings was winning on the road. They were 9-5 at home and a dreadful 2-12 in road and neutral court games, to finish 11-17 overall.

Taken all together, it was a mixed bag of good and bad that provided some building blocks for next season along with some areas that obviously need improvement.

“All in all, we had a semi-type success,” Robinson said. “There were a few things you can hang your hat on this season. We played very well at home. We struggled on the road. We only won two road games. But the future’s bright.”

While trying to look on the bright side, Robinson was quick to note that next season is a make-or-break year for the current roster. There will be six juniors and a number of talented freshmen moving up to the varsity ranks — WC’s ninth-grade team won the Little Six Conference championship this season — but after four years of mediocre finishes it’s time to make a move.

Warren Central, which won only 30 games total from 2007-12, has won 50 in four seasons under Robinson. It’s only advanced beyond the division tournament once during that stretch, however, and only had one winning season.

“You’ve got to make that leap. You’ve got to,” Robinson said. “The floor is set. This is the fourth year with double-digit wins. Our first year we played for the district, second year had a winning season. These last two years were about the same. We have to make that leap as a program.”