Brimmer, Paxton help Kamiakin boys outpace Chiawana

When it rained, it poured Saturday night for the Kamiakin High School boys basketball team. And while there were still a few droughts the Braves will look to iron out in the final week of the regular season, things looked pretty good in their 70-38 home win over Chiawana in Mid-Columbia Conference play.

Isaiah Brimmer scored a game-high 20 — 11 of which came in the first quarter — and Garrett Paxton 19, but it was the Braves’ 40-20 advantage on the boards that allowed them to pull away early and never trail against the Riverhawks (7-10, 5-5).

“We did a great job boxing out, that’s one of (Kamiakin coach Brian) Meneely’s themes of the season is boxing out and getting good rebounds,” said Paxton, who had six boards. “Then it’s about kicking out and getting out in transition.”

Kamiakin’s offense appeared on track from the get-go, as it rattled off eight unanswered points in the first minute of the game, with Paxton and Champ Grayson knocking down 3-pointers. A timeout by Chiawana coach Chad Herron slowed the Braves’ momentum for awhile, but they still held a 22-11 lead with 3 minutes to go in the period and were up 25-14 at the end of the quarter.

Chiawana’s Malik Taylor knocked down all three of his 3-point attempts in the first quarter and scored 11 points to keep the Riverhawks within arm’s length. He finished the game with a team-high 13.

“Throughout the year, Malik has been our most consistent performer. He leads us in scoring, and he’s played that senior roll of when times are tough, he seems to get us out of things,” Herron said. “But tonight it just wasn’t enough. They put it on us every quarter, and just about every way that you could.”

The Riverhawks’ six first-half 3-pointers were one of the few things Meneely had to complain about.

“There were times I didn’t think our help-side defense was as good as it could be, and we didn’t do a very good job of getting to shooters at the start of the game,” Meneely said. “I thought we played hard, but I didn’t think we played as smart as we could have.”

Chiawana reeled off an 8-0 run — Caden Kaelber scored five — midway through the second quarter to pull within eight, but that was as close as the Riverhawks would get for the rest of the game. Kamiakin scored the last four points of the first half, then went on a 10-3 run to start the third quarter to go up 48-30.

While the Braves (15-2, 10-1) were able to rip off some big runs and knock down a lot of shots, there were some lulls in scoring. They went almost 2 1/2 minutes without a point during Chiawana’s 8-0 run in the second quarter, and scored only six points in the last 4:30 of the third.

But Meneely called the win an “overall positive step forward,” as the team played together well over the course of the full 32 minutes, and Kamiakin’s dominance on the boards is a sign of good things to come in the transition game.

“You can’t get out and run if you don’t get the rebound, and if you get the rebound, it enables you to run, to get out into your lane, get an easy shot, easy lay-ins, and put a lot of pressure on the defense,” Meneely said. “It’s extremely important. You’ve gotta finish the defensive possession with a rebound.”

UP NEXT

CHIAWANA: Begins a four-game week to conclude the season by hosting Southridge on Tuesday. Big games for the week will be at home against Richland Wednesday (8 p.m. tipoff) and at Hanford Friday.

KAMIAKIN: Finishes the season off with games against three Class 4A teams, starting at Hanford Tuesday. Will host Richland Friday in a game that will likely be for the conference championship.

This story was originally published January 28, 2017 at 10:41 PM with the headline "Brimmer, Paxton help Kamiakin boys outpace Chiawana."