PORTLAND — It wasn’t just years in the making. It was in the works for more than a decade.

Since being grade schoolers with an early love of basketball, the hopes and dreams were big ones from the start. The girls on the Leavitt basketball team learned to play together and eventually learned to win together. That all ended with an exclamation point Friday night.

The unbeaten Hornets put an impressive stamp on their historic and perfect season at the Cumberland County Civic Center. Facing illness and injury and an experienced Nokomis team, there was no stopping Leavitt in the Class B state championship game.

The Hornets took the lead in the opening quarter, watched the Warriors get a glimpse of the lead in the second and then gradually pulled away in the second half for a 49-37 win, shrugging off any adversity along the way.

“It’s very exciting to be here,” said Abbey Randall, a senior guard, hugging the Gold Ball and sporting a necklace with gold balls around her neck. “It doesn’t even seem real right now.”

It’s the first state title for Leavitt basketball and an extra special victory for coach Tammy Anderson and a team that she’s nurtured for years.

“It means everything to the school and to the community,” said Anderson. “It’s never been done before at Leavitt. We’re a team of firsts.”

Anderson lost two state title games as a player for Winthrop in high school. Winning this one as a coach, with two daughters on the team, made this victory extra special.

“I love all the kids, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t special to be coaching my own daughters and win a state championship,” said Anderson. “I never got it. I was there twice. I told my husband this morning that I never wanted something so bad for somebody else. After going home short twice as a player, if someone had said when I was crying as a player after losing that I was going to win it with somebody else as a coach, I would have traded places right there.”

Courtney Anderson led the Hornets (22-0) with 21 points while Adrie Newton added 13 points and 10 rebounds. Kristen Anderson chipped in nine while Amanda Jordan and Randall each added three.

“It’s more than I could ask for,” said Courtney Anderson, a senior guard heading for the University of Maine. “We were 1-17 my freshman year. To go out not losing one game my senior year, I couldn’t have dreamed of this.”

Nokomis (19-3) got 12 from Kylie Richards while Marissa Shaw and Danielle Watson each had six. The Warriors struggled offensively and was a lesser version of the team that beat Leavitt in 2009-2010 and narrowly lost to the Hornets earlier in the regular season. Nokomis only hit one 3-pointer from the outside and missed a multitude of shots in the paint. The Warriors looked tentative and struggled to take care of the ball against an opportunistic Leavitt defense.

“When you have 23 turnovers, it’s hard to win the game,” said Nokomis coach Kori Dionne. “I expected us to go out and take care of the ball a lot better than we did.”

Leavitt was playing with an ill Kristen Anderson, who became dizzy and was vomiting just prior to the game. Then Newton rolled her ankle and was helped off the court early in the third. Nokomis was down by just six at that moment and had the chance to turn the tide with its size advantage.

“I think a lot of people discredited our bench all year,” said Courtney Anderson. “When Adrie went down, it just made us work harder. The kids that came off the bench knew what they were here for today.”

Amanda Jordan and Sarah Frost did an outstanding job sealing off the inside, which hindered Nokomis the entire game. The Warriors struggled to counter at all with Newton on the bench. Emilee Reynolds scored on a rebound to cut it to 27-23, but Leavitt answered with an 8-2 run to finish the quarter.

“We told Courtney to take it to the hole a little bit more and force the issue,” said Tammy Anderson. “We could draw some fouls or create something, especially with Adrie on the bench.”

Kristen Anderson hit a 3-pointer, just one of two in the game for the Hornets. After a Nokomis fast-break basket, Courtney Anderson scored on a steal and Kristen Anderson added a free throw. Courtney Anderson scored on another steal to make it 35-25 to end the third.

Nokomis shot just 3-for-5 in the third and turned the ball over nine times.

“We missed some easy shots during that flow,” said Dionne, whose team shot 13-for-42 from the floor overall. “You have to take advantage of every opportunity you have and we didn’t.”

As if the 10-point lead wasn’t bad enough for the Warriors, Leavitt trainer Missy Bilodeau did a speedy tape job on Newton and had her back in action by quarter’s end. Their window of opportunity was gone.

“It was nerve-wracking when she went down,” said Randall. “My heart sank a little bit. Even if she had gotten hurt, we knew we could pull it together.”

Nokomis never got closer than eight points in the fourth. Courtney Anderson was not to be denied and scored 11 of her points in the final quarter, taking it right at Nokomis guard Julie Smith and her foul trouble.

“She had three fouls and she didn’t want to foul out in her last game,” said Courtney Anderson. “So I had to attack her. She wasn’t going to foul, and I knew that.”

Leavitt had the lead from the start, but Nokomis was no more than four points away. The Warriors even took a 19-18 lead with 4:19 left in the half when Watson hit a baseline jumper.

Leavitt answered with eight straight to finish the half. Kristen Anderson hit a 3. Newton followed that with a basket in the lane followed by a Randall three-point play that made it 26-19.

“It was very important, I told them, to go into the half with a little breathing room,” said Anderson.

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