Aden Jeffers re-introduced himself to the Maine high school basketball tournament fans in a big way on Monday.
The Fort Kent guard was already a Bangor Daily News All-Tournament team member in last year’s Class C North action as a sophomore. And his junior year has yielded a whole lot more scoring for the dominant offensive force from Maine’s northernmost county.
Jeffers has already joined the 1,000-point scoring club for his career, and he added 37 more on Monday in Fort Kent’s 75-45 win over Sumner.
“We get to go home smiling and happy,” Jeffers said after the victory.
It’s nearly 200 miles one-way from Bangor to Fort Kent.
“It’s just an amazing feeling putting my name out there,” Jeffers said. “We come from a small town, so whenever we come to these big places, we’ve just got to show out and show what we can do.”
With a combination of speed, power and finesse, Jeffers was able to do a little bit of everything on the offensive end for the Warriors on Monday. His 3-point shot was smooth. He seemed to navigate through defenders and get to the hoop with ease. And he provided the biggest high-light reel dunk of the Bangor tournament yet when he flushed a one-handed slam in transition and with authority.
He followed up that first-half dunk with an encore in the fourth quarter, adding an exclamation point to Fort Kent’s commanding win and his own impressive total on the day.
Jeffers also had nine rebounds on Monday.
Despite his lethality on the offensive end, Jeffers was most pleased with the effort he put in on the other side of the ball.
“I played the best defense I’ve played all season — picking up full court, just in their face,” Jeffers said.
He also said it felt good to throw those dunks down. And he credited his confidence at the rim to his preparation.
“Whenever I get out there, I just know I got to put it down,” Jeffers said.
