RUMFORD — The 2015/2016 Mountain Valley Rec Basketball season is underway and there are eight entries in this year’s program.

Games are again played every Sunday at Mountain Valley High School and/or Middle School from December through February with playoffs and league championship in March. League games start at 10 a.m. and run continuously throughout the day. The finale of the league will be followed by the 17th Annual Mountain Valley Rec Invitational Tournament on April 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Four divisions and 32 teams are expected this year.

Last year’s and the past few year’s champions, Ranor Mechanical, unfortunately will not form a team this year and will be missed. Laid Back Installers, who were runners up the past few years and won the championship before Ranor, will be back as favorites and sponsored by Rodney Canwell and led by Brian Canwell. They had the best record in the regular season last year.

M & M Carpentry (Matterhorn last year) has enhanced their team and will be captained again by Spenser Glover. Bethel has added to their team and is captained by Ryan Kimball. Archies, Inc is back with a few new faces and captained by Brett Archibald. Tommy Guns has reentered the league after a year hiatus, recruited some new players and is captained by Tim Turner. Jay is returning and is led by Levi Armandi.

Underdogs (formally Neptune) is trying to develop a competitive team and is directed by TJ Swan. Finally, The Crew (Auburn/Augusta) is a new group, although some have participated in the annual invitational tournament, and is looking to make their mark. They are being directed by Kurt Varney.

In the first week, Dec. 6, M & M, led by Matt Zetts’ 25 points, defeated Tommy Guns, 82-78. Joshua Thomas led the Pubbers with 20 points. Bethel made easy work of The Underdogs, 100-31, with JT Taylor (26 points) and Ryan Savage (21) leading the way.

LBI defeated an undermanned Archies, 105-88. LBI got 28 points from Jon Benjamin, 27 from Brandon Johnson and 19 from Chris Baxter. Archies had all 5 players in double figures, Brett Archibald (23 points), Glen Dubois  (19), Colby Knapp and Steve Lizotte (16) and Justin Archibald (14).

Lastly, The Crew easily defeated a light Jay team, 91-67. Jade Dutil was hot with 39 points and 9 threes for The Crew, while big man Ricky White contributed 27. Jay got 24 points from Eric Gemelli and 23 from Kyle Storer.