California has a new high school basketball scoring king. How Bay Area teams unsuccessfully tried to defend him
OAKLAND – Facing California’s eventual all-time leading scorer, Fremont-Oakland boys basketball coach Scott Alexander tried every tactic in the book to slow down St. Joseph-Santa Maria wing Tounde Yessoufou in a mid-December matchup.
He had his Tigers play zone and man-to-man, drop coverages and aggressive traps. But like he has against almost every other team Yessoufou has faced on his way to a record 3,467 career points, the Baylor commit was not fazed.
“I’ve been coaching high school basketball since 1993, and he’s one of the most patient kids I’ve seen,” Alexander told the Bay Area News Group on Saturday morning “You get a lot of kids who are good, but they’re built off athleticism. But he had patience and athleticism, and that’s what I loved about him.”
Yessoufou etched his name atop the record book on Saturday night by scoring 30 points in a 93-62 victory over Weston Ranch-Stockton with his trademark array of acrobatic drives and high-arcing jumpers.
In the process, he relegated Bay Area legend and former Duke captain Demarcus Nelson to the No. 2 spot with 3,462 points only a few weeks after the Vallejo native had his jersey retired by the local high school.
Nelson has had his eye on Yessoufou all year. During his jersey retirement ceremony at Vallejo two weeks ago, Nelson was asked what it meant to have the record for as long as he did.
He told this news organization, “Records are always meant to be broken, and it’s always something for the youth to strive for. There’s a kid down south that is 300 points away and he should end up breaking it before the end of this year. I think that’s just great.”
Nelson posted a video on social media congratulating Yessoufou on Saturday night.
“You should be proud, you should be happy, and I hope this is a very special day for you and your family,” Nelson said. ”I want to congratulate you, the new all-time leading scorer in California.”
Fremont isn’t the only Bay Area school that Tounde has torched on his four-year march toward history.
Salesian recently gave St. Joseph everything it could handle at Contra Costa College. Coach Bill Mellis’ switch-heavy defense held Yessoufou to just 23 points, his second-lowest output of the season in a 76-67 St. Joseph victory.
“We weren’t going to stop him,” Mellis said after the game. “It was more about stopping the other guys and we didn’t do that.”
Two seasons ago, Dougherty Valley had the unenviable task of facing the Benin native.
Despite starring two future Division-I guards and playing the game in San Ramon, coach Mike Hansen’s Wildcats had no answers for the 6-foot-6 scoring machine.
Yessoufou scored 29 points in the NorCal Open Division semifinal as St. Joseph survived a furious Wildcats rally to win 87-76.
California’s top scorer also put up 33 points on Oakland Tech this season. In 2023, Yessoufou dropped 44 points against St. Francis, the second-highest total of his career.
Earlier that season, he dominated Berkeley en route to a 38-point night. The Yellowjackets tried to sag off Yessoufou in an attempt to clog his driving lanes, and the McDonald’s All-American responded by making five 3-pointers.
“He’s probably the best player I’ve ever seen as a high school coach,” Berkeley coach Mike Hudson told this news organization on Saturday afternoon. “I think he’s going to be an NBA all-star within five years.”
The record-breaker might not be done tormenting Bay Area teams. Because St. Joseph plays in the Central Section, it could be placed in either NorCal or SoCal brackets for the regional playoffs.
“I would play against anyone, anytime and any day,” Yessoufou said after the Salesian game. “For me, it’s about playing the best competition.”