The Apex boys’ basketball team, the self-styled Davids who had taken down Goliath in four straight games, learned that the hard way Saturday against a giant who proved too mighty.

The Cougars were unable to complete their fairy-tale season as East Mecklenburg prevailed 72-63 in the NCHSAA 4-A state championship game at Reynolds Coliseum.

A state championship would have been the ideal conclusion to Apex’s magical playoff run — one that lasted five games longer than anyone outside of its locker room expected — but real life rarely plays out like make-believe.

Instead of celebrating wildly as the final buzzer sounded, most Apex players pulled their jerseys up to hide their devastated faces.

In time, hopefully, that anguish will subside. And eventually, those young men will realize how special what they did was.

“The whole experience has been kind of surreal,” said Apex coach David Neal. “I got off the bus today and I was walking up with [assistant coach] Ryan Mattocks and I was like, ‘Are we really walking up into Reynolds Coliseum to play in the state championship?’ So it’s an accomplishment.

“It’s hard right now for them, but they’ll be able to look back and tell their kids and their grandkids they competed for all the marbles and played their hearts out and just came up short against a better team.”

While they were denied their storybook ending, the final result does not in any way diminish what transpired during the last three weeks or make Apex’s story any less compelling.

Through 13 games — just more than half a regular season’s worth— the Cougars were 4-9 and 0-4 in the Tri-Eight. This was supposed to be their rebuilding year, so their struggles weren’t exactly surprising.

But then senior guard Tim Plummer joined the team after straightening out his grades, and everything clicked.

Apex closed the regular season winners of 10 of 11 and forced a tie for second place in the conference. That went mostly unnoticed.

The Cougars were bounced out of the Tri-Eight tournament in the first round by Cary, a team that didn’t make the playoffs and finished the season with a losing record. Most figured Apex’s season would soon be over.

As the No. 3 seed out of the Tri-Eight, the Cougars went to Laurinburg and beat Scotland County in the first round of the playoffs — and kept going. Perhaps an early play in that game, a monstrous alley-oop finished by Plummer less than two minutes in, signaled they wouldn’t be going away quietly or any time soon.

Apex then felled four conference champions in a row by a total of 10 points, each victory more stunning than the previous one.

In the second round against Millbrook, DeArius White hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with eight seconds to play, and the Wildcats missed two free throws in the closing seconds to give Apex the win.

In the sectional final against Clayton, the Cougars halted the Comets’ 15-game winning streak and held them to 20 points below their per-game average to prevail 60-55 and earn their first trip to Greenville for the regional tournament.

In the regional semifinal against Terry Sanford, Apex squandered a 16-point halftime lead and later trailed by as many as eight points before rallying to win 58-55.

In the regional final against Jack Britt, the Cougars kept it close throughout and Weston Murphy scored the game-winning bucket with six seconds to play. But the magic ran out Saturday.

East Mecklenburg was too big, too quick and too deep. Apex kept it close for two and a half quarters before the Eagles pulled away late in the third quarter.

In the annals of N.C. basketball, what this Apex team did might get lost in the shuffle, as is typically the case with the runner-up.

But history will look fondly upon this team, and it is one that Neal won’t ever forget.

“I told them from here on out, as long as I coach, if we’re fortunate enough to make the playoffs, I’ll be talking about this team, especially if we’re a three, four [or] five seed,” Neal said. “It can be done.”

A model of inspiration — that’s not a bad consolation prize.