Toure drops 28, Kamiakin races past Kennewick
The Kamiakin High School girls basketball team didn’t get to practice much this week, but Oumou Toure didn’t need any time to knock off the rust as she scored 28 points to lead the Braves to a 79-40 road win over Kennewick on Saturday night in Mid-Columbia Conference play.
The sophomore guard scored 13 points in the Braves’ 20-5 run to start the game, which lasted about nine minutes, and went into the half with 19. She fell four points short of her season-high 32, mostly because she didn’t play for much the second half.
“It was mostly because of my teammates,” Toure said of the fast start. “We came in ready to go, and we got after it. Before the game, we sat there and thought how we were going to get after this game, how we didn’t want to let the game before this (a 60-27 win over Southridge on Friday) affect us, and how we just wanted to play as a team.”
Kamiakin coach Lane Schumacher praised Toure not just for her ability to score, but also for her willingness to spread the ball around and help her teammates get open looks. In turn, Toure said having teammates like sophomores Alexa Clark and Symone Brown — who scored 12 and 10 points, respectively — makes it easy to make the extra pass.
When Toure’s scoring output slowed in the second half, her teammates kept the momentum rolling, using a 26-7 third quarter to give the Braves (14-1, 9-0) a 65-29 lead heading into the final period.
Kennewick freshman guard Aislin Fiander was held scoreless in the first half, but came back to lead the Lions (4-9, 2-6) with nine points. She knocked down 4 of 5 free-throw attempts.
The victory was Kamiakin’s sixth straight and helped it clinch the MCC’s No. 1 postseason seed for 3A teams. Kamiakin has only won one game by fewer than 20 points — 72-64 over Richland on Jan. 14 — on its current winning streak.
“I think they’ve been doing great,” Shumacher said. “We’ve got a tough weekend coming up because we play Chiawana again (Saturday at home), and we’re going to hope they can respond to that, because they have all year. It’s a cliché, but we hope that we’re playing our best basketball at the end of the season here.”
Expectations were high this season for Toure, a first-team All-MCC pick as a freshman, and Kamiakin after a trip to state last year, and both parties have lived up to the billing. Toure entered the game as the MCC’s leading scorer, averaging 22.6 points per game. The conference’s second-leading scorer, Pasco’s Bella Gutierrez, was averaging 15.2.
“(Toure) is great, she’s a team player, she rebounds the ball well,” Schumacher said. “She gets a lot of her points from just rebounding the ball and putting it back in, or causing a turnvoer and laying it in.”
The Braves are No. 8 in the 3A RPI poll, but undefeated Bishop Blanchett (ranked No. 1) is the only other squad with fewer than two losses.
UP NEXT
Kamiakin: Will go on the road to play Walla Walla on Friday. The Braves beat the Blue Devils 62-43 on Dec. 20, their last win before falling to Moses Lake Dec. 29.
Kennewick: Will play at Southridge on Tuesday in the first meeting between the teams this season.
KAMIAKIN: Symone Brown 11, Scherbath 7, Larsen 1, Holle, Clark 6, Alexa Hazel 12, C.Williams 6, Oumou Toure 28, J.Williams 7. Totals: 28 20-29 79.
KENNEWICK: Aislin Fiander 9, Davis 4, Barajas 2, Rettig 4, Quast 7, Fridley, Thornton 6, McBee 1, Morfin 2, Oatis 5. Totals: 16 6-17 40.
Kamiakin | 17 | 22 | 26 | 14 | — | 79 |
Kennewick | 3 | 19 | 7 | 11 | — | 40 |
Highlights — Ka, Toure 7-8 FTs. Ke, Fiander 4-5 FTs.
Dustin Brennan: 509-582-1413, @Tweet_By_Dustin
This story was originally published January 21, 2017 at 8:38 PM with the headline "Toure drops 28, Kamiakin races past Kennewick."