Girls basketball: Fremont pulls away from Syracuse with 13-0 run, sets up 1st-place tilt at Davis
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- Syracuse High’s Avery Sanders (center) dribbles the basketball while guarded by Fremont’s Charli Hunt (left) and Taylah Doxey (right) during a high school girls basketball game at Syracuse High School on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023.
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- Syracuse’s Kyleigh Nielson (left) pushes off of Fremont’s Taylah Doxey (right) during a high school girls basketball game at Syracuse High School on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023.
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- Fremont’s Saydee Heslop (33) looks for a pass while guarded by Syracuse’s Cortnie Barker during a high school girls basketball game at Syracuse High School on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023.
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- Fremont’s Aly Coombs prepares to go up for a floater during a high school girls basketball game at Syracuse High School on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023.
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- Fremont’s Sierra Eddie dribbles the ball down the court during a high school girls basketball game at Syracuse High School on Friday, Jan. 20, 2023.
SYRACUSE — Aly Coombs grabbed a rebound, took a couple dribbles and passed down the court to her Fremont High teammate, Taylah Doxey.
Doxey flew in for a contested layup against Syracuse’s Maylee Anderson, got fouled, fell down and while laying on the ground, watched the layup go in.
The Fremont bench made its loudest and most pronounced celebration to that point in the game. Doxey, who scored five points in the game, made the free throw and the impending sense of another Silverwolves snowball got that much bigger.
Doxey’s layup gave Fremont a little more wind in its sails against a defensively tough Syracuse team, wind that helped the Silverwolves go on a 13-0 run that eventually secured a 46-38 road win in their toughest Region 1 game to date.
“I think we just needed to show up and play our game, kind of expect hard things to come especially playing on their floor. It’s a hard floor to play on, so we just had to adjust to whatever came our way,” said Charli Hunt, who led Fremont with 12 points.
A year after graduating four starters, three of whom are currently playing college basketball, the Silverwolves are right where they’ve been in the Region 1 standings each of the past five seasons at this point in the winter: undefeated.
In the last month particularly, they’ve gotten better at post play, rebounding and team chemistry, the latter of which was always going to be a point of focus for a team of mostly new starters and rotation players.
“When we first started we were very, like, separate, we didn’t really — we kind of were going against each other instead of helping each other, so I think we’ve grown together as a team,” Hunt said.
Fast-forward to Friday, it was the same old Fremont (11-5, 5-0 Region 1). The Silverwolves went on a 13-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters to go up 39-26 and effectively put a lid on the game midway through the fourth quarter.
Doxey’s and-one told everyone in the gym that Fremont had the momentum with a 34-26 lead. A 3-pointer from Coombs gave her nine points on the night and made it 39-26.
Syracuse’s Avery Sanders, who led all scorers with 14 points, made a 3 for the Titans to break their scoring drought that lasted for almost one quarter of game time.
On the next possession, Fremont’s Sierra Eddie (10 points) made a 3 for a 42-29 lead and the lead stayed in double digits until the waning moments of the game.
“It was a grind the whole entire game, there wasn’t like free-flowing, easy offense because (Syracuse is) a disciplined team,” Fremont coach Lisa Dalebout said.
For Syracuse, a couple of late layups ensured it lost by single digits instead of double digits, but it didn’t change the tune of a frustrating game on offense.
Defensively, though, the Titans (9-6, 3-2) held Fremont to 46 points after previously holding Davis to 42 points and Farmington to 36 points.
“I’m really proud of our defensive effort, but we’ve gotta score more points and finish around the rim,” Syracuse coach Braden Hamblin said. “According to my guy on the bench, we were 9 of 36 from 2-point range, lot of red X’s inside that key, and we lost by eight.”
Their focus, he said, will be about seeing the ball go through the hoop and getting more confidence on offense.
Fremont, meanwhile, is unbeaten in Region 1 to the surprise of almost nobody. It shares first place in the region with Davis (12-1, 5-0) and the two play each other Tuesday in Kaysville for the first of two meetings that, right now, appear likely to decide the region championship.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.