Aden Jeffers scored 24 points in the regional championship game on Saturday night. His last two were as good as you’ll ever see on a basketball court.
Jeffers, the unstoppable junior guard from Fort Kent, just re-wrote Warriors history by making a buzzer-beating jumper to give his team an unforgettable 48-47 win over the Caribou Vikings.
That dramatic game-winner gave Fort Kent its first ever Class C North regional championship. And it provided an inspiring finish to the regional tournament action at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor.
When Fort Kent inbounded the ball to Jeffers down one with less than 6 seconds left, it seemed like the game might be slipping away for the Warriors. But nothing is ever over when Jeffers is on your team.
He dribbled the ball into the lane and, somehow, was able to knock down the leaning jumper in the lane as time expired.
The shot, which is sure to become a thing of Fort Kent legend, capped a back-and-fourth final quarter between the Warriors and Vikings.
“It was a grind-it-out win. We tried to really give it away there the last minute and a half of the fourth quarter,” Fort Kent head coach Chad Cyr told WHOU after the improbable finish. “But Aden wouldn’t let us do it. He came through big, big time. That’s all there is to it.”
Jeffers pointed to his teammates after the win.
“It was a great game. I love my guys, I love my coach. We did this together,” Jeffers said. “All the long hours in the gym. All the morning practices. All the adversity we had to go through, we just came here and showed up.”
Owen Corrigan also showed up yet again for Caribou with 20 points, and the Vikings got 15 more from Colby Ouellette. But it wasn’t quite enough to overcome Jeffers’ magic in the final seconds.
“It came down to that last shot, and Aden hit a tough one,” Caribou coach Kyle Corrigan said after the last-second loss. “I just watched it back and I thought, how did that even go in?”
The Fort Kent run also ends Caribou’s attempt at back-to-back state championships. The Vikings won the Class B title a year ago.
“They had unbelievable standards set on them this year. Everybody thought this was going to be a cake-walk season for us,” Corrigan said about his message to his team after the loss.
Class C North was always going to be a battle with a slate of talented teams, however.
“But you can’t control the narrative. So I thought they handled that really well,” Corrigan said. “And I just told them I’m proud of them and that I love them. And I thanked all my seniors for everything they’ve done, not just this season but the last four years.”
Now it’s the Warriors who have a chance at a state championship, and will vie for that Class C title at 8:45 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 28 at the Augusta Civic Center. Fort Kent will face Class C South champion Maranacook in that game.
“Credit to them. I’m really happy for them,” the Caribou coach added after the tough loss. “Fort Kent is a local County team, we’re about 45 minutes apart. So I’ll be rooting for them next Saturday.”