If you don’t like exciting basketball games, then you should probably stay away from the Cross Center in Bangor right now.
Fifth seeded Fort Kent delivered the latest surprise with a 62-55 win over fourth seeded Hodgdon Tuesday night in Class C action. The Hawks of Hodgdon had gotten the better of the Fort Kent warriors in their two previous meetings.
But the third time ended up being the charm for Fort Kent, which closed out the back-and-fourth game with a strong finish in the fourth quarter.
Hodgdon entered the tournament with a 15-3 record and Fort Kent’s regular season record was 10-8.
But Fort Kent sophomore guard Aidan Jeffers, junior guard Tobias Naranja and the rest of the Warriors squad made sure that previous records and matchups didn’t matter Tuesday night. Jeffers piled up 31 points for the game high and Naranja had 20 of his own. The game was tied 45-45 going into the fourth quarter, and Fort Kent outscored Hodgdon 17-10 in that final period to bring home the win.
Jeffers was asked about that fourth quarter effort, from himself and from the team, after the game.
“I felt like we did what we had to do, swung the ball. We just played as a team. It’s not one person that wins a game, it’s all of us,” he said. “As a team we just have to keep persevering and just keep going no matter what.”
Jeffers said his team “definitely” felt like underdogs going into Tuesday’s rematch, and noted the challenge for Fort Kent fans to travel all the way to Bangor. That’s a more than three hour drive.
“We still persevered and kept going,” Jeffers said.
He said the Warriors will bring that underdog mentality to the next game as well.
Jeffers effectively sealed the win Tuesday night with a fastbreak and contested layup to go up 61-53.
