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Colorado State helps raise money for player who lost parents, nieces in house fire

UNLV Colorado St Basketball

Colorado State’s Tiel Daniels, left, and Emmanuel Omogbo celebrate the team’s 66-65 win over UNLV during an NCAA college basketball game Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016, in Fort Collins, Colo. (Austin Humphreys/The Coloradoan via AP)

AP

Tragedy struck Colorado State forward Emmanuel Omogbo this week.

Both of his parents, as well as his sister’s two-year old twins, passed away in a house fire in their Chillum, Md., home. Emmanuel’s sister, the mother of the twins, reportedly survived after jumping out of a second-story window.

“This is absolutely heartbreaking for Emmanuel, his family and for all of us that know him,” Colorado State coach Larry Eustachy said in a statement. “There are no words to describe how it felt to hear this terrible news earlier today. They were a beautiful family that I enjoyed getting to know. The entire Colorado State men’s basketball team, athletic program and university will be there to support and help Emmanuel in any way we can through this incredibly tough time in his life.”

Omogbo, who is averaging 11.4 points and 7.4 boards, is a native of Nigeria that moved to Maryland’s DC suburbs as a kid. He played 10 minutes in Colorado State’s win over Air Force last night. “It was the most gallant effort I ever saw a guy try to do, he was just holding everything in,” head coach Larry Eustachy said after the game.

Eustachy and assistant Ross Hodge will travel back to D.C. this weekend with Omogbo. The program has established a GoFundMe campaign that was started to help the Omogbo family with expenses during this time -- which can be found right here -- that will have broken the $50,000 plateau by the time you read this.