KAYSVILLE — Davis High’s boys basketball team didn’t win a region or state championship Thursday night. It celebrated afterward like it had won a fairly big game, but the manner in which it won appeared worth celebrating.

The Darts were run off their home floor for one quarter against Box Elder, but they weren’t run out of the gym completely. Davis erased a 16-point, first-quarter deficit and beat the Bees (0-4) by 16 points, 69-53.

Davis trailed by as much as 23-7 early in the second quarter, got within 28-24 at halftime, took the lead early in the third quarter and never trailed again in a win that the team hopes will get it on a path toward consistency.

“Celebrate every win, yeah. A win’s a win, but learn from it,” Davis senior Zach Fisher said. “We started off really slow, 21-5 first quarter, but I mean, the boys came back. So proud of the fellas for sticking down defensively, winning by 16 eventually.”

Through five games, Davis (3-2) has had a variety of results. Two double-digit wins that weren’t really in doubt, followed by two single-digit losses where they shot 67% and then 25% from the field, then Thursday’s comeback.

Part of it, Davis coach Chad Sims said, is the Darts are playing a ton of different lineups and figuring out who goes where. They do have one defining characteristic, so far.

“They work their tails off, they work harder than some of our best groups, we’ve just got to put it together,” Sims said.

Fisher thinks the Davis team that took the floor Thursday is different than what it will look like in January when region games start.

“What I’ve taken away from these games, just you know, we keep improving, we keep learning from each game,” Fisher said.

Fisher had a large part to do with the comeback, scoring a game-high 21 points with nine rebounds on 10-of-15 shooting, going 9 of 14 on 2-pointers against a predominantly zone defense.

Ike Morgan totaled 14 points, six assists and four steals. Coleman Atwater had 10 points, but was one of three Davis players to foul out.

The key stats were turnovers and points off turnovers. Davis committed five turnovers to Box Elder’s 15, and scored 18 points off turnovers compared to the Bees’ one.

That discrepancy, plus 11 offensive rebounds, resulted in Davis taking 57 shots compared to Box Elder’s 33.

The early issues were that Davis couldn’t make anything and couldn’t stop fouling, sending Box Elder to the line where it subsequently made almost everything.

Box Elder (0-4), specifically senior post Max Isaacson and senior guard Elijah Kersey, started brightly.

Those two had the Bees’ first 14 points. Isaacson scored six straight to turn a 5-5 game into an 11-5 lead. Kersey made a 3-pointer that made it 14-5 and forced a Davis timeout.

It was 21-7 at the end of the first quarter, a lead built mostly at the free-throw line and from Davis missing a bunch of outside shots.

Fisher’s close-range bucket with 38 seconds left in the quarter stopped a 16-0 Box Elder run and a several-minutes scoring drought.

“Once we started scoring inside, they had to suck in. It was just a matter of hitting shots outside, you know,” Fisher said.

Davis made a 10-2 run to cut the Box Elder lead to 25-17 and then another late 7-0 run to cut the Bees’ lead to 28-24 at halftime.

Once Davis led 34-32 in the third, it extended its lead to 40-32 and the Bees got back within three points, but couldn’t get closer.

“I thought Ike and Zach were really good leaders and kind of kept everyone together and kept locking people down on defense,” Sims said.

Kersey scored 19 points on 6-of-12 shooting with six rebounds for Box Elder. Isaacson had 16 points, 11 rebounds and shot 8 for 8 at the free-throw line. The Bees shot 16 of 33 from the field and 18 of 25 at the line.

Thursday’s game was part of the Davis-hosted 6A-5A Challenge, which resumes Friday and Saturday at Davis High. Below are the schedules.

FRIDAY

3:15 p.m. — Syracuse vs. Olympus

4:55 p.m. — Weber vs. Woods Cross

6:35 p.m. — Davis vs. Viewmont

8:15 p.m. — Fremont vs. Box Elder

SATURDAY

10:35 a.m. — Davis vs. Olympus

12:15 p.m. — Syracuse vs. Box Elder

1:55 p.m. — Weber vs. Viewmont

3:35 p.m. — Fremont vs. Woods Cross

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.

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