ROCKLAND — After starting the tournament Friday night, March 28, and finishing up with the "if game" needing to be played Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m to decide the championship of the Rockland Recreation Boy's fifth- and sixth-grade invitational hoops tournament, the Boothbay boys finished up the day as the tournament champions.

After losing to the Medomak 5/6 team Saturday afternoon, the Boothbay team had to play at Saturday night at 7:15 p.m. and fought its way back, winning three games in a row with the last two over the Windjammers for the championship.

Teams competing included Rockland Recreation, Windjammers 5/6, Georges River Buccaneers, Thomaston Thrashers, Medomak Valley,  Medomak 5/6, Mount View and Boothbay.

There was a nominal fee for the tournaments, with each team being guaranteed to play a minimum of two games. All the teams are YMCA, town recreation or private town teams. None of the teams participating were Club or AAU teams.

The tournament was run by the staff of the Rockland Recreation Center and they have been doing it for so long now that most of the young men that run the clock, keep score, sweep, run the concession and anything else that Recreation Director Rene Dorr and Assistant Recreation Director Benjie Blake ask them to do — all played at Rockland Recreation years ago when they were in the fifth- and sixth-grades. They understood what a big deal this tournament was to the young athletes.

This season was no different as each team played with everything they had until just Boothbay and the Windjammer 5/6 team were left. Because this was a true double elimination tournament, meaning you had to lose twice to be eliminated, there was the need for what is called the “if game.” Because of that Boothbay needed to defeat the Windjammers two games in a row.

Following are the game results in order played with final score and high scorers for each team.

Game 1
Rockland Recreation 38, Medomak Valley 22 — Evan Wilson had 16 points and Cameron Kingsbury had 12 to pace Rockland, while Harley Porter had five and Noah Crosby had four for Medomak Valley.

Click here for a photo gallery from the Rockland-Medomak Valley game

Game 2
Windjammers 35, Georges River Buccaneers 13 — Jeremy Fraser and Jacob Knowlton had 12 points each to lead the Windjammers, while Nathan Coombs had six for Georges River.

Click here for a photo gallery from the Windjammers-Georges River Buccaneers game

Game 3
Medomak 48, Thomaston Thrashers 16 — Connor Simmons had 12 points and Jordan Powell had 10 for Medomak, while Aiden Munro tallied six and Christian Weed scored five for the Thrashers.

Click here for a photo gallery from the Medomak 5/6 and Thomaston Thrashers game

Game 4
Boothbay 46, Mount View 22 — Boothbay’s Kaeden Davis led all scorers with 14 points and Nick Morley added 13. For Mount View, Seth Basford had six and Garett Smith added five.

Click here for a photo gallery from the Boothbay-Mount View game

Game 5
Medomak Valley 30, Georges River Buccaneers 23 — Michael Simmons had 13 for Medomak Valley, while Sam Vose had eight for the Buccaneers.

Game 6
Mount View 37, Thomaston Thrashers 29 — Trevor Bryant had 13 points for Mount View, while Christian Weed had nine for Thomaston.

Game 7
Windjammers 47, Rockland Recreation 42 — Jeremy Fraser had 19 and Jacob Knowlton had 13 for the Windjammers, while Evan Wilson had 13 for Rockland.

Game 8
Boothbay 34, Medomak 29 — Kaeden Davis had 13 for Boothbay, while Gabe Allaire tallied 14 for Medomak.

Game 9
Rockland Recreation 52, Mount View 32 — Cameron Kingsbury made 14 baskets for Rockland while Seth Basford made 12 for Mount View.

Game 10
Medomak 39, Medomak Valley 14 — The two Medomak teams ended up in a loser’s bracket game, meaning one would be sending the other home. The Medomak 5/6 team would capture the win to move on while Medomak Valley’s tournament would come to a close.

Game 11
Windjammers 41, Boothbay 35 — Casey Messer made 13 points and Jeremy Fraser and Jacob Knowlton added 10 each for the Windjammers, while Nick Morley tallied 13 for Boothbay.

Game 12
Medomak 48, Rockland 33 — This game had Medomak being the eliminator again, this time at the expense of the Rockland Recreation team. Jordan Powell had 12 and Connor Simmons had 10 for Medomak, while Cameron Kingsbury tallied 15 for Rockland.

Game 13
Boothbay 42, Medomak 31 — This time around Medomak found itself on the losing end of an elimination game, falling to the eventual champions Boothbay. Kaeden Davis had 12 points for Boothbay and Jordan Powell had nine for Medomak.

Game 14 (Championship Game One)
Boothbay 36, Windjammers 26 — Boothbay had to win to have a shot at the championship while the Windjammers just had to win to capture the title. This was a close game most of the way, with Nick Morley and Michael Hallowell making nine each for Boothbay, while Jeremy Fraser tallied nine for the Windjammers. The Boothbay win forced the “if game” to follow this game.

Game 15 (Final Championship Game)
Boothbay 46, Windjammers 38 — This game was a battle from the start to the finish from some very tired, mostly 10- and 11-year-old boys who all played with everything they had. Kaeden Davis dropped in a tournament high 21 points to lead Boothbay past the Windjammers. Hunter Crocker added 10, Michael Hallowell nine, Nick Morley four and Steven Bennet two.

Jeremy Fraser had 13 points to lead the Windjammers. Jacob Knowlton added six, Casey Messer and Joshua Pearse made five each, Sam Hanson four, Noah Berry three, and Ivan Young and Owen Markowitz one each.

Click here for a photo gallery from both Boothbay-Windjammer games

Ron Hawkes can be reached at sports@penbaypilot.com