Orono 77 BSM 69: Five Things to Know

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>Orono picked up a huge Class AAA, Section 6AAA, Metro West win on Friday night when they topped Benilde-St. Margaret's 77-69. Here are Five Things to Know</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>One. Big Game Producer</strong>. [player_tooltip player_id='1189958' first='Isaiah' last='Hagen'] has come up huge in big games. Early in the season the Spartans beat Hopkins and Isaiah went for 30 plus. They had a game of top five teams at Alexandria and Isaiah went for 30 plus. Hagen went against [player_tooltip player_id='1151197' first='Daniel' last='Freitag'] and he had 30 plus in a key all league game. And of course in another top five Class AAA match-up, [player_tooltip player_id='1189958' first='Isaiah' last='Hagen'] went for 30 plus again in one of the biggest games of the regular season! Hagen went 11 of 20 from the field, mage 10 of 12 foul shots and made four threes! He went on a late game run of ten straight points that changed everything plus he had a dozen boards. This guy has had more Mr. Basketball moments than everybody on the final ten not named [player_tooltip player_id='962218' first='Nasir' last='Whitlock'] and he didn't make the list (seriously, just a horrible miss by the committee). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Two. Win Despite Injuries</strong>. Orono won this game and they did it with three key players getting hurt. Starting center [player_tooltip player_id='1484016' first='Brady' last='Wooley'] did not play at all, [player_tooltip player_id='1579885' first='Nolan' last='Groves'] hurt I believe his ankle and had to sit, and I think it was Grand Gunderson who hurt his shoulder, went over and seemed to fix it, and then walked back over and said he was good to go! Impressive. Despite all of those injuries Orono had the depth to win because [player_tooltip player_id='1491768' first='Zach' last='Close'] was a beast on the glass (12 boards), Gunderson scored 11, [player_tooltip player_id='962230' first='Kyle' last='Kallenbach'] did a great job passing the ball despite a tough day shooting, and [player_tooltip player_id='1336696' first='Riley' last='Nelson'] stepped up big!</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Three. [player_tooltip player_id='1572689' first='Jalen' last='Wilson'] The Best Sophomore</strong>. Wilson has the frame of a modern college basketball small forward and we are seeing a face-up touch from him as well as some more pushing the ball up the floor. At times he was also the main ball handler out of dead balls. Wilson is at his best though around the basket playing the game of a back to the basket producer. He had a very impressive 24 points on 8 of 11 shooting with ten rebounds and four assists. Every part of what Wilson has done this year backs up him being the top 2025 in the state right now. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Four. Big Game for Nelson</strong>. Late in the game Orono had a really good possession of ball movement that led to a corner pass to Nelson who hit a three. That make was the biggest shot of the game as it put Orono up for good and it was the mark where BSM just did not have enough to overcome the deficit. With injuries throughout the Spartan line-up Nelson stepped into a big spot and hit five threes and he only took six shots for the game! It was a 17 point, seven board night in a key situation where his team needed him and Riley stepped up big. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p><strong>Five. Where Are We Now</strong>? I have a feeling we will get BSM vs Orono one more time. BSM won the first game, Orono won the second. The Class AAA rankings will be out tonight and both BSM and Orono are top four teams in the state. With this win Orono will likely take a step in front of BSM in the rankings. That said...... BSM will still have the edge in the two items that are more important: QRF in 6AAAA and Metro West standings. BSM has the better QRF rank of 2 while Orono has the rank of 4 (not sure how the Orono loss to South Dakota power Sioux Falls Jefferson works into that). </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>BSM also has the one game lead in the conference at 10-2 whereas Orono is 9-3. Both teams play Chaska this week with Orono playing St. Louis Park while BSM has New Prague. Chaska, New Prague, and St. Louis Park are the three worst teams in the league so you can expect BSM to hold that one game conference league to the end. The out liner here is that BSM lost to Waconia while Orono lost to both Jefferson and Chanhassen and that is where the one game edge comes in. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->