The Fort Kent basketball team traveled over four hours to Augusta and did something that no group had ever done before from their school.
They won a boys state basketball championship. And they did it in dramatic fashion.
The Warriors’ thrilling 70-63 win over Maranacook on Saturday night was the culmination of a magical run through Class C for the Fort Kent boys.
Though the Warriors jumped out to a massive 20-2 lead to start the game, Maranacook mounted a gutsy comeback in the second half and put lots of pressure on Fort Kent.
But the brilliance of Fort Kent star Aden Jeffers could not be contained. The junior guard powered the Warriors once again with 27 points and 10 rebounds.
“It’s amazing. All the work we put in — early hours, late nights — it’s just an amazing feeling to win this game with my guys,” Jeffers said after the victory.
And as good as Jeffers was, it was the fourth quarter play of senior center Fin Kelly that may have shined brightest late in the game. Kelly knocked down several close range buckets right as Maranacook looked primed for a comeback.
Those points helped quell the furious Maranacook surge, and Fort Kent hung on for their historic win.
“Fin’s amazing,” Jeffers said. “He’s not really one of those guys who are on TV getting their stats put out there. But whenever we need him, he shows up.”
The Warriors path to the state championship had a bit of everything. The Aroostook County team saw dominant performances from Jeffers throughout, including a miraculous buzzer-beater to claim a last-second victory over Caribou for the North regional championship. That followed a comeback win over Mattanawcook Academy in the regional semifinals.
And even when it looked at first like Saturday’s state title game would be a breeze at first, things got interesting down the stretch once again for the Warriors. But they held together, and now they’ve made Fort Kent history.
“Fort Kent is the kind of town that you almost can’t fathom the way everybody gets together,” coach Chad Cyr said Saturday night. “It’s amazing the type of community that it is.”
And Cyr said it was awesome to be able to bring the championship home.
“Because I do know that it means a lot,” the Warriors coach added.
Maranacook junior Jack Fontaine shot the lights out Saturday night for a total of 28 points, and freshman Gage Mattson poured in 21 of his own.
But the Fort Kent squad looked like a team of destiny throughout the tournament, and they proved it on the court at the Augusta Civic Center.
As Fort Kent junior guard Mason Pelletier pointed out, the team and the town were experiencing the feelings of a basketball championship for the first time.
“It’s the first ever. I think that basically sums it all,” Pelletier said. “Nobody’s ever felt these emotions before. And it just feels indescribable.”
And in order to make that history, the Warriors had to work together even when they were pushed to the limit late in the game.
“It just took 100 percent effort,” Pelletier said. “All the loose balls, there was never one that our guys didn’t hit the floor on. So that’s what it took.”
