Cooper Flagg isn’t the only stellar freshman at Duke. Toby Fournier has the potential to be a star.
DURHAM, N.C. – A bit more than 90 seconds remained and No. 16 Duke had essentially already won the game against rival No. 8 North Carolina, leading by 18 points. But Toby Fournier never relaxed. Her effort didn’t waver.
UNC’s Indya Nivar drove into the paint, only to be double-teamed by Fournier and her Blue Devils’ teammate Ashlon Jackson. Nivar threw a nifty pass between Fournier’s legs, putting the ball in the mitts of an open Blanca Thomas, for what seemingly looked like an easy layup for the Tar Heels.
Except the 6-foot-2 Fournier spun around, faced the 6-foot-5 Thomas and leapt into the air, swatting away her shot with relative ease.
It was one of many highlights that Fournier produced in a 68-53 home victory for the Blue Devils over the Tar Heels, and her performance ended any debate about who the best freshman in the Atlantic Coast Conference is. In a big game, on senior night, against a rival, with seeding implications for the ACC Tournament and the NCAA Tournament on the line, Fournier stepped up in a huge way, ending her night with 19 points, 10 rebounds, an assist and two blocks.
“Toby is a beast,” Blue Devils senior guard Reigan Richardson said. “When she steps on the court, her confidence is undeniable. Her energy just bleeds into all of us. When she’s on a roll, we feed her any chance we get.”
With 6-foot-5 Maria Gakdeng in early foul trouble and the tough and versatile Alyssa Ustby out of the lineup, Fournier had her way with North Carolina in the first quarter. The Tar Heels apparently made the decision to not close out on the Canadian freshman at the 3-point line, and she made them pay for it with 1:37 to play in the opening frame, when she rainbowed a shot in from the left wing on a dish from Taina Mair. The Cameron Crazies roared as Fournier raised her right hand in the air with three fingers up in celebration.
“I’ve been working on my shooting,” Fournier said earlier this season. “If they back up off me, I’ll shoot the ball.”
Moments later, when UNC’s Trayanna Crisp’s attempt at a response ricocheted off the rim, Fournier jumped above Thomas and secured the defensive board with both hands. As Duke led by as much as eight points in the first period, Fournier was a major reason why. She had 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting to go along with six rebounds in eight minutes of action.
“Toby got us off to an incredible start. Her presence, her aggressive mentality – she was attacking,” Duke coach Kara Lawson said. “That really steadied us and just gave us a lot of confidence. Because when she’s playing well, we’re a good team.”
It’s hard to argue with Lawson on that last point. When Fournier scores at least 13 points in a game, Duke is 13-1 this season, with their lone loss coming on the road against a ranked opponent – at Maryland on Nov. 10 – in which the Blue Devils missed 12 free throws and lost by five points. And when Fournier has at least seven rebounds, Duke is 7-2. When Fournier makes a 3-pointer, the Blue Devils are 5-0.
Indeed, Cooper Flagg isn’t the only stellar freshman playing at Cameron Indoor Stadium this season.
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A native of Toronto, Fournier was a five-star prospect, ranked as top 10 recruit by ESPN, and was a Jordan Brand All-American. She’s trained with Canada’s senior women’s national team and helped her country win a bronze medal at the U19 level at the 2023 FIBA World Championships. She grew up idolizing Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne, and it’s hard not to notice bits of their games in hers. Like them, she has a good handle for a forward, a knack for rebounding, the ability to step out and knock down mid-to-long-range shots, and a competitive drive.
And like Parker, she can dunk too. A few of Fournier’s high school highlights of her slamming down the ball went viral and gained her some notoriety.
Despite the game of basketball somewhat running in her family — her great-grandfather was part of the Toronto Raptors’ original ownership group in the 1990s — Fournier didn’t start playing seriously until the age of 12. She dunked for the first time at 14. But she’s so much more than simply an athletic rim-runner who can catch lobs and throw the ball with force through the hoop.
Fournier tried and quit a lot of different sports as a kid, winning three long jump championships along the way, but basketball is the one that stuck for her. She’s long loved the game, and her ability to play it at a high level came somewhat naturally. That, coupled with her quick coordination, sharp IQ, strong work ethic, otherworldly athleticism and lanky frame, turned her into one of the top prospects in her class. She could’ve gone to South Carolina, Stanford, UConn, UCLA or one of several other major programs, but signed with Duke instead, where she feels at home and where she felt like Lawson would make her a better defender.
“Just watching them, even before I came to school, I was looking at the defense, I was looking at their offense, every single part of the game that they play. I was looking at that and kind of seeing where I would fit on the team,” Fournier said. “I knew that defense was definitely something I wanted to work on, and I knew that Duke would be the place where I would develop the most.”
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Fournier hasn’t started a single game this year for Duke, but one could make the case that she’s been the Blue Devils’ most valuable player. Despite playing just 19.7 minutes per game, she leads Duke with a scoring average of 13.6 points. She also has the best field goal percentage on the team – 54 percent – is second in rebounding and tied for first in blocks.
Since 2009, 20 freshmen have averaged at least 13 points, five rebounds and a block per game while shooting at least 50 percent from the floor. Fournier is one of them, and other names on that list include Brittney Griner, Breanna Stewart, Brianna Turner, A’ja Wilson, Kamilla Cardoso, Ayoka Lee and Aneesah Morrow. UConn’s Sarah Strong and Fairfield’s Meghan Andersen are in this exclusive group too. But out of all of them, Fournier has played the least number of minutes.
Another top contributor off the bench for Duke, sophomore Oluchi Okananwa, sees her teammate’s potential.
“I see myself a lot in her, in terms of being that spark off the bench in her first year,” says Okananwa, who won the ACC Sixth Player of the Year award last season as a rookie. “It’s so fun to play with her. She’s so incredibly talented.”
According to HerHoopStats, among players who have played at least 20 games this season, Fournier is ninth in the nation in points per 40 minutes, averaging 27.7. Many of the players above her in that stat are household names, like USC’s JuJu Watkins, Florida State’s Ta’Niya Latson, Oklahoma’s Raegen Beers, Iowa State’s Audi Crooks, and Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes. It’s a figure that shows what Fournier might become down the road for Duke with a bit more seasoning.
Fournier is also 18th in the nation in player efficiency rating with a mark of 34.8.
In a lopsided Jan. 16 loss at Cameron Indoor Stadium – in which Fournier collected 23 points and 11 rebounds – Cal coach Charmin Smith admitted that the Golden Bears didn’t really have an answer for her. Fournier shot 7-of-10 from the floor and abused Cal’s post players with her quick footwork and soft touch at the rim.
“We were supposed to guard her on the block, which we didn’t really have that much success. She scored a lot in the paint,” Smith said. “She was a problem.”
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It hasn’t always been easy for Fournier this season though. She struggled mightily against the Tar Heels in their first meeting against the Blue Devils in Chapel Hill on Jan. 9. Fournier scored just two points in 19 minutes while going 0-of-8 from the floor and turning the ball over three times in an overtime loss for Duke.
To Lawson, Fournier’s performance on Thursday night showed her resiliency, competitiveness, and gained experience.
“For Toby, I think it was just time,” Lawson said. “At this point in the season, she’s played almost every team in the (ACC). She’s played a lot of the top teams. I think she just has more of a comfort now of how she can play and how she can attack.”
As the season has progressed, Fournier has been able to reflect on games where she wasn’t at her best and learn from them. After scoring just two points in a loss at South Carolina on Dec. 5, she scored a season-best 27 in the next game in a home win over Virginia Tech.
“Just going off the harder games, the games where I was struggling, I was able to kind of think about what I needed to do differently,” Fournier explained. “I was making a lot of mistakes… and I took all of that information that I got from (South Carolina) and I tried to use it for (Virginia Tech).”
She added: “Mentally, I was definitely going through it a little bit, especially being a freshman. It’s been really hard. It’s been pretty stressful. But I think it’s all a part of the process.”
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Perhaps the only other real contender to Fournier for the ACC’s Rookie of the Year award is Georgia Tech’s Dani Carnegie. And to be sure, she’s been a big contributor to the Yellow Jackets’ surge this season and is a big reason why they’ll make the NCAA Tournament. Their scoring averages are about the same, but Fournier has more rebounds, owns a better shooting percentage from the floor and has a better defensive rating.
Fournier has also helped her team win more games against marquee opponents. Georgia Tech is 1-5 in games against Quad 1 opponents and 11-8 against teams in the top 100 of the NET. Duke meanwhile is 5-5 in Quad 1 games and 16-7 against the top 100.
Duke was 11th in the top 16 seed projection released by the NCAA Tournament selection committee just 30 minutes before tip-off against the Tar Heels on Thursday night. The win should only elevate their chances of hosting opening weekend games in March Madness, which would be the second time the Blue Devils have done so in Lawson’s five-year tenure.
With Fournier on the roster, it’s likely that Durham will become a regular host site for the next few seasons.
