BANGOR — The third time was not the charm for Dirigo.

A.J. Harris poured in a game-high 27 points and helped Lee Academy control both ends of the floor as the Pandas won their first Class C boys’ state championship, 65-55, Saturday night at the Bangor Auditorium.

“We’ve never been state champs. It feels good to be the group of guys to get that first one,” Harris said.

Bryan James added 18 points and Daniel He 13 points and 11 rebounds for Lee Academy (21-1). Spencer Ross scored 15 points and Josh Turbide 13 to lead Dirigo (13-3), which had lost in the previous two state finals and was trying for its first title since 1983.

The Pandas took control with an 18-8 second quarter and were never seriously threatened in the second half. With Cody St. Germain (eight points, six rebounds) plagued by foul trouble, Dirigo was forced to rely on its perimeter shooters, who struggled much of the night in the cozy confines of the Auditorium. The Cougars shot just 32 percent from the floor, the Pandas 46 percent.

Both teams had to sit their big men early after drawing two first quarter fouls, but Dirigo ended up paying the heavier price in the long run.

The Cougars got a momentary lift when He went to the bench with his second foul, taking an 11-6 lead when they broke the press and St. Germain found Arik Fenstermacher for a layup and a foul.

Harris, who had nine points in the quarter, answered with a three-point play of his own, then picked off a pass and found James for the tying bucket. With Ben Holmes already on the bench with two fouls, St. Germain had to join him with his second foul while Turbide and Harris traded 3-pointers to close the quarter in a 14-14 tie.

St. Germain remained on the sideline while Harris continued with the hot hand. The guard scored nine straight points in a 13-2 run as Lee opened up a 29-19 lead.

“I just got to the hole I think whenever I wanted to,” said A.J. Harris, who is the son of head coach Randy Harris. “I”m not a good finisher, but I’m good at drawing fouls, and I’m a real good foul shooter, so I like to get to the line.”

“He presents a problem because we had to put a post player on him when he’s a guard,” Dirigo coach Rebecca Fletcher said. “If you put a guard on him, then he’s going to take him into the post. He’s just a great all-around player and he just does all of the little things for them.”

Dirigo went more than 4 1/2 minutes without a point until Turbide hit a 3-pointer to make it 29-22 with 21 seconds to go in the half. The Pandas still took a double-digit lead into the intermission, though, because James drilled a fadeaway trey at the buzzer.

St. Germain’s absence and the 6-foot-7 He’s return with a little over five minutes to go in the half made things difficult in the paint for the Cougars, Despite shooting a respectable 4-for-11 from beyond the 3-point arc, the Cougars shot just 8-for-27 overall in the first half (1-for-9 inside the arc in the second quarter). The Pandas shot 10-for-28.

“I thought we really started to lose the confidence that we started the game with and a little bit of our composure,” Fletcher said. “I think when the guys saw two of our starters go to the bench, it wasn’t that we were in foul trouble, it was that if affected us emotionally on the floor. I think we did get tentative offensively when that happened.”

“We put Daniel back in with St. Germain out figuring maybe we could take advantage of our size,” Randy Harris said. “I thought he altered some shots. He had one stretch there where he got three or four offensive rebounds in a row and really gave us some separation.”

Lee pounded the ball inside to He for seven straight points to open the second half. St. Germain picked up his fourth foul and He completed a three-point play to extend the lead to 15. The margin got as high as 18 before Caleb Turner and Turbide cut it back to 13 by the end of the period.

Five Lee turnovers in the first three minutes of the fourth quarter helped the Cougars pull even closer. Ross’ 3-pointer made it a seven-point game with 5:23 left. After a James hoop inside, Holmes answered with a putback to make it 50-43.

Lee threatened to pull away again on an Arturis Makowskis jumper and a Harris layup, but Dirigo battled back to within seven again on a Ross 3 and St. Germain’s first hoop since the first quarter. James and Maskowskis combined to make six of eight from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to keep the Cougars from getting any closer.