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Box Elder’s Mayson Jeppsen (33) defends a shot by Fremont’s Dylan Bruce (4) during a game Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Brigham City.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

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Box Elder’s McKay Deem (0) fights toward the basket during a game against Fremont on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Brigham City.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

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Box Elder head boys basketball coach Russ Beck looks on during a game against Fremont on Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Brigham City.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

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Fremont’s Ben Calvert (25), defended by Box Elder’s Krew Peterson (13), looks for a shot during a game Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Brigham City.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

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Fremont’s Zach Masters, front, drives past Box Elder’s Carter Buchanan (15) during a game Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, in Brigham City.

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

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BRIGHAM CITY — Little stood in the way of Fremont boys basketball snapping its two-game losing streak in a 70-33 thumping of Box Elder on Friday night.

Suffering narrow losses at the hands of Ridgeline and Springville, the Silverwolves (3-3) leaned on center Zach Hancock’s floor-high 22 points in their return to form.

Fremont head coach Corey Melaney, impressed with his team’s aggressive start, said his roster was amped for the opportunity to prove themselves after a bitter stint of late-game faults.

“The boys came out hungry,” Melaney said. “We wanted to speed (Box Elder) up, make them uncomfortable and take away what their comfortable doing. I thought our guys did a great job of making them play faster than they wanted to.”

Seniors Ben Calvert (10 points), Zach Masters (nine points) and Jace Hadley (eight points) each added strong performances to the scorebook. Melaney said his troop confidently sought out big man Hancock, who shot a perfect 10 of 10 from the field (the team was a blistering 31 of 48 from the floor).

“We had guys that got (Hancock) the ball,” Melaney said. “We’ve been working on getting the ball to the post and once they fight for the position, you’ve got to reward them. To go 10 for 10 and not miss a bucket, that’s pretty amazing.”

Senior Carter Buchanan’s nine points led the Bees (0-5) as Box Elder head coach Russ Beck looks to rebound from a fifth consecutive loss.

“You can view an empty wallet as work,” Beck said. “We just gotta put in some work and get better defensively. We’re a great team in transition, we need some more opportunities. The only way to do that is to defend, rebound and get on the break.”

Few answers existed for the Bees in the first half as Fremont’s defense stretched Beck’s group outside the arc and brought pressure every time the ball left the baseline.

Buchanan found a couple of paths into the paint early, but those points were little in the face of the Wolves’ 3-point barrage that forced two timeouts by Box Elder, down nine with 4:38 still to go in the first quarter.

Soon after, Fremont coughed up two turnovers, including an offensive charge against Masters, but entered the second quarter with a 24-4 lead just the same.

Box Elder found themselves chasing the Wolves in transition on what seemed like every possession. Hancock led Fremont to another 20-plus point quarter and pushed his team into the break up 28.

Box Elder pushed back lightly in the second half, with sophomores McKay Deem (five points) and Krew Peterson (five points) putting two 3-point jumpers through the net. Junior Kason Anderson (three points) jumped off the bench for another 3 in the fourth quarter.

Beck sees great potential with Box Elder’s competitive nature in transition, but acknowledged there’s a tall laundry list of corrections they’ll need to make as the season ramps up.

“It’s a learning process,” Beck said. “It’ll pay off in the long run, but we’ve got to suffer a little bit right now to get where we want to be. … Credit to Fremont, they were physical, gave us a lot of ball pressure and broke down our actions.”

Both teams return to action Tuesday, Dec. 10, with Fremont traveling to Bingham (7 p.m.) and Box Elder hosting Weber (7 p.m.).

BOX SCORE

Fremont 24 21 16 9 – 70

Box Elder 4 8 12 9 – 33

FHS (70): Hancock 22, Calvert 10, Masters 9, Hadley 8, Duft 7, Bruce 7, Hansen 4, Cooper 3.

BE (33): Buchanan 9, M. Jeppsen 7, Peterson 5, Deem 5, Anderson 3, Gilmore 2.

Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.com and X @ctbecker.