MINNEAPOLIS -- Ada-Borup's boys' basketball team is playing for more than just pride, history and a potential championship.
The Cougars earned their first berth in the state tournament since 1966, when they competed as Ada, and advanced to the semifinals of the Class A tournament to face Ellsworth after earning an 82-44 victory over Cass Lake-Bena on Thursday. But the victory was bigger than basketball.
Ada-Borup is competing for a community that currently is battling against destruction. Back home, in northern Minnesota, major flooding is altering lives and landscapes around Ada and Borup. In Minneapolis, on Minnesota's biggest high school basketball stage, the Cougars are offering an escape.
"It's great just to give everybody a little bit of an escape from everything that's going on," Ada-Borup coach Trevor Stewart said. "Sometimes, reality is what reality is. But it's nice to have those escapes, and this is definitely is a good one, and I think the guys take pride in that."
The flooding in and around Fargo, N.D., has made national news. Ada-Borup High School is located almost an hour northeast of the hardest-hit areas, but the communities haven't escaped unharmed.
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School started two hours late on Wednesday because of snow, and some of Ada-Borup's players, who live on farms further out of town, were forced to stay with friends living near the high school in an effort to make sure they could make it through floodwaters and onto the bus for Wednesday's trip to Minneapolis.
"It seems like every spring we get a little bit of a flood," Stewart said. "These guys are kind of used to it -- not to take it lightly; it's a terrible situation, and the other communities in our area are getting hit worse than we are. But we do have some problems ourselves, and there are some kids living on farms and out in the country who have been affected. It's definitely not to be taken lightly, but I think our guys will cope with it well."
While the Cougars are used to dealing with floods, they definitely were unfamiliar with playing in the state basketball tournament. But they handled that well, too.
Ada-Borup trailed 9-4 with 15:01 remaining in the first half Thursday but responded with a 27-12 run in the ensuing 7:19 en route to a lopsided and impressive victory over Cass Lake-Bena, which placed third last year and was making its third consecutive appearance.
The Cougars dominated in every facet of the game. They shot 64.8 percent (35 of 54) from the field and 53.3 percent (8 of 15) from beyond the arc, dished out 24 assists and committed just 10 turnovers. They held Cass Lake-Bena to just three total assists and 22.2 percent shooting (16-of-72) from the field and 12.5 percent (3-of-24) from beyond the arc.
"We've been playing well of late, and today I think we put together a lot of things defensively," Stewart said. "We've been working hard all year, and we have a bunch of kids who have a lot of experience. Most of these guys have played since they were sophomores. Our guys move pretty well, and they trust each other on the floor. We have our big guys behind them to take care of some things."
Now Ada-Borup will face its biggest challenge -- on the basketball court -- of the season. The Cougars will face Ellsworth, the two-time defending champions, at 2 p.m. today at Target Center.
"I think there will be some jitters and some nerves, but they're a tough group," Stewart said. "We know it will be a heck of a matchup against Ellsworth, the two-time defending champions. Absolutely that will be in the back of our heads. But we'll just play tough, and we'll do our slogan: 'No fear, no regrets.' We'll go out and play and do the best we can."
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Ada-Borup, which starts four seniors and a junior, is led by senior guard Yuri Johnson, who scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-12 shooting from the field, including 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, in the victory Thursday. Blake Bueng, a 6-foot-6 senior center, who likely will defend against Ellsworth's 6-foot-9 center, Trevor Gruis, scored 16 points on 8-of-10 shooting.
"Cass Lake shoots a lot of 3s, and they were off, so I thought that was a big part of the score being so lopsided," Ellsworth coach Tyler Morris said. "When you're not hitting, and when you're coming down and throwing up a lot of 3s, it can get ugly. And Ada-Borup was getting layup after layup after layup. Those combinations, I think, made the game look uglier than maybe it really was."
The Panthers earned a 59-46 victory over Sebeka in the Class A quarterfinals on Thursday but struggled to execute their offense against Sebeka's physical defensive style and full-court scheme.
"Ada-Borup, to me, seemed kind of big, kind of physical, and it seems like it could be up and down the court," Morris said. "We're going to have to respond to those things, but I'm not sure Ada-Borup is as athletic as Sebeka. I'm not sure they're going to come out and extend that kind of pressure we saw (against Sebeka on Thursday)."
Ada-Borup is the only thing standing in the way of the Panthers making their fourth consecutive trip to the Class A title game.
"You have to play tough teams to get to the top," Gruis said. "And it's just another team we have to play."
Said Ellsworth senior guard Adam Van Der Stoep: "It doesn't get any easier from here on out. The biggest game on our schedule is (today)."
