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Orono beats St. Cloud Apollo

By Ron Haggstrom, Star Tribune, 03/23/11, 5:30PM CDT

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Spartans advance to the Class 3A semifinals


Apollo's Simon Krych, left and Orono's Jeremy Borg pursued a rebound. Marlin Levison, Star Tribune

Family first, basketball a close second.

St. Cloud Apollo senior guard Ibrahim Abukar has been an inspiration for both his family and his teammates the past two days. A day after giving some of his bone marrow to sister Zamzam, who is battling leukemia at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, Abukar stood on the Williams Arena floor and shook his head in disbelief as the final horn sounded  in Orono’s frantic 67-62 overtime victory in the Class 3A boys’ basketball state tournament quarterfinals Wednesday.

“How can you not respect that kid?” Orono coach Barry Wohler said. “It’s an inspirational story.”

Abukar sent the game into overtime, making two free throws with five seconds remaining to tie it at 60. He scored seven of his 16 points in the final 1 minute, 42 seconds.

“I was starting to think we were in trouble,” Wohler said. “I thought he was going to do everything in his power to get them a win.”

Instead, it was Jordan Smith’s willpower that has Orono going to the semifinals. He scored the Spartans’ first six points in overtime and finished with a game-high 29.

“That is the worst feeling [losing],” Abukar said. “I don’t wish that on anybody.”

An hour after getting out of surgery at 9 a.m. Tuesday, Abukar was in a gym shooting in preparation for the game.

“I was going to play no matter what,” Abukar said. “This has been my second family for four years.”

Orono’s victory was nearly identical to a 62-55 triumph over the Eagles (25-5) in the semifinals of the Granite City Classic in St. Cloud. The Spartans (26-4) trailed by seven points at halftime then.

Orono had a much deeper hole to climb out of this time. Blake Maslonkowski’s layup gave the Eagles a 43-25 lead with 14:11 remaining. The Spartans quickly turned up their defensive pressure and made it a full-court game, taking the lead before Abukar took over in the waning minutes.

“They want to play at 99 mph, and we want to play at 75,” Eagles coach Dean Kesler said. “They just wore us down in the second half.”

March Thru March

ST. CLOUD APOLLO

ORONO

Section Playoffs Leaders