The lights are shining fairly brightly on Fort Kent’s schoolboy basketball season, with the Warriors poised to earn a home preliminary-round playoff game in Eastern Maine Class C.

But the lights went out on the team before its regular-season finale at Van Buren on Tuesday night, the result of a power outage in the Saint John Valley that affected Van Buren, Fort Kent, Madawaska, Edmundston, New Brunswick, and surrounding areas.

The outage occurred shortly after 5 p.m., just as the Fort Kent teams were arriving in Van Buren.

“I don’t know if opening the bus doors caused it,” said first-year Fort Kent head coach Andrew Clavette, “but as soon as we got off the bus the lights went out in the whole area.”

The team spent the outage in the school gymnasium near auxiliary lights, and various scenarios were discussed among school officials including possible makeup dates if the power wasn’t restored and the game had to be rescheduled.

But the electricity was restored shortly before 6:30 p.m., and while the junior varsity game between the schools was cancelled, the varsity game began around its originally scheduled 7 p.m. opening tipoff.

Fort Kent went on to a hard-fought 64-49 victory over the Crusaders, as Adam Bouchard scored 16 points and Corey Voisine and Matt Harvey combined for 14 fourth-quarter points as the Warriors held off Van Buren’s comeback bid.

“It was a unique situation,” said Clavette. “But the kids responded all right. There were a couple of points where we didn’t put Van Buren away like we could have or maybe should have, but Van Buren’s a feisty team, and finally we were able to do what we needed to do in the fourth quarter to secure the win.”

The power outage also had an impact on the boys game at Madawaska between the Owls and Wisdom High School of St. Agatha. That game also was delayed, but once power was restored Madawaska went on to an 80-38 victory.

Fort Kent, ranked sixth in the latest Eastern C point ratings, won three of its last four games, including a pointworthy victory over No. 5 Houlton, to finish its regular season with a 10-8 record.

Voisine, who made 6 of 7 free throws in the fourth quarter to help Fort Kent put away Van Buren, has been the team’s leading scorer and assist maker, while Jason Lesaldo has been a top rebounder for the Warriors.

“It’s been a little up and down,” said Clavette. “We’re getting better, and we’re working on trying to put four quarters together so we’re just taking everything game by game and quarter by quarter and trying to limit our mistakes.”

Raiders’ Hunter injured

The Washington Academy boys basketball team is seeking to regroup at the end of its regular season after losing senior center Joey Hunter to a broken foot.

The 6-foot-4 Hunter, who averaged 15 points, 13 rebounds, three blocked shots and three steals for the Raiders this winter, injured his foot Jan. 27 while shooting around informally, according to WA coach Kenrick Liburd.

“He went up for a jump shot, came down and landed wrong on his ankle, and wound up cracking a bone in the bottom of his foot,” said Liburd.

There’s no indication yet on if Hunter could return to the lineup this season, Liburd said. Washington Academy (8-7) is slated to end its regular season on Thursday night with a home game against Woodland at East Machias that was postponed due to inclement weather on Wednesday.

The Raiders were ranked ninth in the most recent Eastern Maine Class C Heal point ratings, and is in line to earn a preliminary-round playoff berth.

WA has lost three games in Hunter’s absence, road contests against Narraguagus of Harrington, George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill and Sumner of East Sullivan.

“It’s taken a little time to adjust to playing without him,” said Liburd, but I think we’ll be OK.”

PVC title games on tap

The Penobscot Valley Conference will stage its inaugural championship games for boys and girls basketball on Saturday evening at Hermon High School.

The girls’ game will begin at 5:30 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by the boys’ game, according to Penquis of Milo boys basketball coach and athletic administrator Tony Hamlin.

The game is open to both Class C and Class D teams in the conference, with teams qualifying by virtue of having the most Heal points as of the most recently released rankings, Hamlin said.

That means the girls’ game will feature the top two teams in Eastern Maine Class C, Houlton and Lee, while the boys game will match Lee Academy and Schenck of East Millinocket, ranked second and third behind Calais in Eastern C.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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