Team of the Year: Fremont weathered injuries and Region 1 gauntlet in title-winning season
-
- Fremont High’s boys basketball seniors pose for a photo after Fremont beat Davis to win the Region 1 championship on Feb. 16, 2023.
-
- Fremont’s Hunter Hansen, right, drives against a Copper Hills player in a 6A second-round playoff game Friday, Feb. 24, 2023, in Plain City.
-
- Fremont High’s David Calvert (25) goes up for a basket while guarded by Farmington’s Paul Beattie (left) and Ethan Atkinson (right) during a high school boys basketball game at Fremont High on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023.
-
- Fremont’s Boston Hadley (5) turns to shoot over Layton’s Crew Harrop (20) on Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023, in Layton.
-
- Fremont High’s Hunter Hansen (left) and Farmington’s Jayden Haskell (middle) jostle for the ball while Treyden Hoggan (right) looks on during a high school boys basketball game at Fremont High on Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023.
-
- Fremont’s Braden Flinders (3) looks to pass to Boston Hadley (5) during a 6A state quarterfinal Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, at the Dee Events Center in Ogden.
Fremont High’s boys basketball team had every reason to win the Region 1 championship this year and then, every reason not to.
In November, the Silverwolves were picked as favorites to win the region, owing to experienced players and college-level talent that no one else in the area had.
That all got put to the test when in January, right before a particularly grueling part of the Region 1 schedule, when star guard and leading scorer Hunter Hansen dislocated his kneecap against Clearfield.
Two regulars for Fremont — Treyden Hoggan and Boston Hadley — had dealt with their fair share of injuries throughout the spring and summer, and were both not quite in form yet.
The Silverwolves weathered all of that and a competitively balanced region to win the Region 1 championship outright — just like everyone thought, but not how everyone thought.
Fremont is the 2023 Standard-Examiner All-Area Boys Basketball Team of the Year.
After the Hansen injury, Fremont faced the prospect of two critical region games at Syracuse and at Davis without the player who was the Silverwolves’ leading scorer in 13 of 14 games to that point.
They surrendered Syracuse’s game-tying putback at the fourth-quarter buzzer but won a double-overtime rock fight, 51-48. Then they beat the Darts 58-56 thanks to Treyden Hoggan’s 27 points and 8-of-10 mark from 3-point land.
The two wins eventually served as the difference between them being 10-2 and alone in first place in the region, or 8-4 and in second place behind Layton.
“I think they wanted to prove to other guys that, no, we’re not a one-man show,” Fremont coach Corey Melaney said. “I said nobody needs to go score 20 more points a game, but we do need to score a couple more. If everybody scores a couple more or gets another rebound, everybody gets another assist, everybody plays just a little bit better defense — that was the message, is just do a little bit.”
This all happened in what was, top-to-bottom, the most competitive Region 1 season in several years.
Five Region 1 teams finished in the top 12 of the state RPI rankings, and all five of those finished the season with 14-plus wins. Three of them went to the state quarterfinals and two were a basket away from the semis.
Every game, even against the bottom teams in the region, had its fair share of challenges. Fremont went 5-2 in region games decided by single digits. Melaney credited a “mature” Silverwolves team — five seniors regularly featured — for keeping its head in uncomfortable situations this year.
Over the final eight region games, Fremont had four different leading scorers: David Calvert (three times), Hansen (twice), Hoggan (once) and Boston Hadley (once).
Calvert led the team at Syracuse (15) and Clearfield (18). Hadley had 16 in the win at Farmington and Hoggan had his 27 at Davis.
In the end, five players averaged six points per game or better: Hansen (18.4), Calvert (11.7), Hadley (8.5), Hoggan (7.5) and Braden Flinders (6.2).
A sixth, Christian Blanch, had two of his better-scoring games of the season in the road wins at Syracuse and Davis.
“I think it took every last one of them to get the job done,” Melaney said.
Hansen returned for the final six region games and wasn’t 100% healthy, but Fremont still won the region title and he led the team in scoring at Weber (17) and in the region-title clincher against Davis (19).
The team’s scoring average dipped slightly from 59.2 points per game before Hansen’s injury to 58.3 afterward.
Defense particularly guided the Silverwolves down the stretch. They allowed 51.3 points per game over their final 10 games after giving up 56.1 in the 14 prior games.
“I feel like everything starts with defense, so we just tightened it all up on defense, trying to make their key players make tough buckets and keep them all down,” Calvert said after a February win at Weber amid Fremont’s stellar defensive stretch.
After a home loss to Syracuse, Fremont briefly returned to its early-season form and torched Davis to clinch the region title and Copper Hills in the second round of the playoffs. Hansen averaged 24 points on 19-of-28 shooting (67.9%) in those two games.
The good form ended against American Fork in a 57-52 state quarterfinal loss.
Outside the Dee Events Center locker room in the moments after the loss, it was apparent from the Silverwolves’ players that they felt a mix of being disappointed in the loss and happy they got that far — and either feeling was justified.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
