Aden Jeffers has scored plenty of buckets already in the Maine high school basketball tournament.
But none of them were quite like the one he made late in the third quarter of his Fort Kent team’s come-from-behind win over Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln.
The Warriors from Fort Kent battled back after being down by four points at halftime. And with the score deadlocked at 43 late in the third quarter, the junior Jeffers once again showed why is considered among the best players in the state.
Jeffers collected the ball on the fast break and took it strongly to the hoop — so strongly, in fact, that it didn’t seem to matter that a Mattanawcook defender wrapped him up with both arms along the way.
That bear hug-like attempt to slow Jeffers didn’t work, as he still finished for two points at the hoop. And it also drew an intentional foul call.
That gave Jeffers not just one, but two shots after the made basket.
“I just looked up and saw somebody hugging me, and tried to make a layup,” Jeffers said with a smile about that play.
He stepped up to the line and made both foul shots, turning that into a four-point play for the warriors at a critical time. They went from being tied with the Lynx to up four at the end of the third quarter.
“The game was back-and-forth the whole game, we started to pull away a little bit,” Jeffers said after the 70-61 victory. “I feel like that four-point play really helped us to pull away to end it.”
Jeffers then added a 3-pointer for good measure to start the fourth quarter, stretching the Fort Kent lead to 50-43.
The Fort Kent junior guard finished with 23 points on the day, 18 of which came in that decisive second half.
Jeffers scored 37 points in the previous round of the tournament when Fort Kent comfortably defeated Sumner.
