A double-elimination tournament got under way Sunday to decide which team will lay claim to 2020 Wiscasset Parks and Recreation Department’s Adult Basketball League championship. A commemorative plaque will be presented to the team’s sponsor.  

The action will continue the next two Sundays before concluding on March 8 when the championship game will be held. All of the games are played in the Wiscasset Community Center gymnasium. A sizable crowd turned out to see the opening round.

Maxwell's Market, Wiscasset Ford, Cantrell's Seafood, Red's Eats, Ames Supply and First National Bank teams make up the league. Last year’s winner First National Bank finished the regular season as the number one seed; Cantrell’s was seeded two. Sunday’s tournament opener featured two teams with identical 4-6 records, Maxwell’s Market and Ames Supply. Maxwell’s rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit and won 73-64 but it was close through three quarters.

Maxwell’s Ethan James scored the first points of the game, launching and hitting a three pointer. But Paul Greenier, Ames Supply’s point guard, had the hot hand from behind the arc. He canned three threes in the opening 10-minute quarter.

Greenier netted 11 more points in the second period helping stake his team to a 43-32 halftime lead. Greenier opened the third quarter with another trifecta briefly giving Ames a 14-point advantage and largest lead of the game. Maxwell’s then rallied back, dominating the next eight minutes of play and netting a string of unanswered points. Matt Craig’s three whittled Ames’ lead to six. Then, with 30 ticks left in the period, Matt Petrie’s basket tied the game at 54, where the score stood headed into the final period.

With the momentum going Maxwell’s way, Petrie hit yet another three in the opening minute of the fourth quarter. That put his team in front for the first time since the game’s opening minutes. Ames Supply’s Cody Tosier’s answered with a huge trifecta deadlocking the score at 57. Craig then went to work with a pair of baskets, including a nifty lefthanded layup following an Ames turnover. Craig’s basket put Maxwell’s up for good. On the team’s next possession, James scored from underneath the backboard opening up a 71-64 lead. Todd Souza followed by sinking a pair of pressure free throws to put Maxwell’s ahead by nine points with less than 90 seconds until the closing buzzer.

In the final seconds, Greenier stole the ball at midcourt and scored a final basket for Ames Supply. Greenier finished with a game high 28 (four threes); Tosier has 13, and Sean Chubbuck, 9. For Maxwell’s, James was the top scorer with 26; Craig finished with 22, eight of those points in the pivotal fourth quarter. Petrie put 20 points on the scoreboard.

The second game featured number three-seeded Red’s Eats with a 5-5 record against fifth-seeded Wiscasset Ford who finished the regular season at 3-7. Wiscasset Ford won 99-88.

The one/two seeds, First National Bank and Cantrell’s, faced each other in the nightcap. FNB entered the tourney with the best record at 8-2; Cantrell’s finished the regular season at 6-4. FNB won big 87-75. 

Players to watch include FNB’s Bryan James who’s been among the league’s top scorers. James scored 54 points in a wild 79-78 win over Ames Supply during the regular season. Chris Hersom had a big game for Cantrell’s Seafood during the regular season, too, when he collected 45 points in his team’s win over Maxwell’s.