Richland spoils No. 3 Kamiakin boys basketball's undefeated 4A Mid-Columbia Conference hopes

KENNEWICK, Wash. — This time, the Richland Bombers were ready. In front of a packed house at Kamiakin High School on Friday night, Richland played intense

KENNEWICK, Wash. — This time, the Richland Bombers were ready.

In front of a packed house at Kamiakin High School on Friday night, Richland played intense defense and shot much better to beat the Braves 67-62 in a Mid-Columbia Conference boys basketball contest.

The win gives Richland a 14-1 MCC record (16-3 overall), while Kamiakin drops to 13-1 MCC, and 16-2 overall.

The Bombers play host to Southridge on Tuesday, while the Braves visit Southridge on Saturday, and then play host to a tough Kennewick team on Tuesday.

If both teams win out, they’d be tied for first place in the MCC.

But the tiebreaker, by MCC rules, is who has the higher RPI rating in the WIAA rankings. That’s Kamiakin, who dropped to No. 4 in Class 4A late Friday night, while Richland sits at No. 10.

“I don’t see how we can be better,” said Richland head coach Earl Streufert. “Our RPI has to be better than theirs.”

For now, though, Streufert will take Friday’s victory as sweet consolation.

The Bombers’ performance was the exact opposite when the two teams met in Richland on Jan. 11, a game in which Kamiakin won 70-49 and the Bombers shot an ice-cold 17 percent from the floor.

“We had a great week of practice this time,” said Streufert. “We actually started getting ready for this one the week before this past week. We played a little different defense this time.”

It included trying to put the clamps on Kamiakin star Tyler Bilodeau whenever he got the ball.

But the 6-foot-8 senior forward, bound for Oregon State in the fall, still finished with a game-high 21 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, and dished off to the wide-open shooter when he was double-teamed for five assists.

The Bombers still forced 18 turnovers that translated into 24 points.

And they shot 45 percent this time from the floor.

“I felt we just weren’t prepared (that first meeting),” said Richland senior and captain Twazae Gladney, who led the Bombers with 20 points on Friday. “In practice, we make everyone on the team shoot. Any time it could be a hot night (for anyone).”

The two teams battled evenly in the first half, with Gladney’s jumper at the buzzer giving the Bombers a 25-24 lead at intermission.

At halftime, Kamiakin honored Randy Dolven — the school’s long-time coach and athletic director who passed away in 2020 — by naming the gymnasium after him. It was an emotional affair, with Dolven’s family in attendance, and when the Kamiakin crowd starting chanting Dolven’s first name, the entire Richland crowd joined in.

In fact, Richland’s top assistant coach, Bruce Robertson — a friend of the Dolven family — wore a red Kamiakin polo during the game, instead of the usual Bomber green and gold.
The whole halftime affair set the tone for a much more emotional second half, if that was possible.

Richland poured it on in the third quarter, outscoring Kamiakin 22-6 in the period for a 47-30 lead entering the fourth quarter. Jordan Valencia scored 8 points in the quarter, while Josh Woodard added 7 more.

But Streufert offered a word of caution to his squad between quarters.

“I told them ‘You understand that run was fun, right? Now you need to catch your breath and do it again,’” Streufert said.

But instead, it was the Braves who put a run on the Bombers in the fourth quarter.

Kamiakin senior Trey Arland — whose 19 points in the game helped him exceed the 1,000-point mark for his career — scored 5 points in a 12-0 Braves run to open the final quarter and get them back in the game.

Richland’s Valencia broke the run with a layup off a nice pass from teammate Jase Vopalensky for a 49-42 Bombers lead.

And while Kamiakin got as close as 1 point in the final minutes, Richland held the Braves off for the victory.

“We didn’t do a good job of finding the open guy tonight,” said Kamiakin coach Brian Meneely. “We did not share the ball well, and we attacked the basket too quickly. Playing catchup in the fourth quarter, that’s just too big of a hill to climb. It was a lot to overcome in that quarter.”

For Kamiakin, Meneely didn’t seem optimistic that he’d be getting Jacob Bilodeau — Tyler’s twin brother — back any time soon. 

“He has a stress fracture in his foot,” said Meneely, who earned his 250th career victory on Jan. 29. “And like other teams, we’ve been battling with covid issues. Monday was the first time in weeks we had our top eight guys in practice.”

Woodard finished with 16 points for Richland, while Valencia added 14. Peter Dress finished with 10 points and 9 rebounds for the Braves.

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