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TAYLORSVILLE — With the score tied in the final two seconds and Fremont’s Melanie Graves having just missed the first of two foul shots, Silver Wolves coach Lisa Dalebout did something she has never done before.
She called a timeout.
Unafraid to let the extra minute ice her nerves, Graves responded by swishing the final free throw, and Fremont survived for a 55-54 win over Lone Peak to advance to the semifinals of the Class 5A girls basketball state tournament Wednesday at Salt Lake Community College.
“I was a little surprised, but it didn’t really bother me,” Graves said. “It just let me reset, say that was over, and put the next one in.”
Graves finished with 10 points, three rebounds and three steals for the Silver Wolves, and teammate Harley Hansen led all scorers with 23 points and six rebounds for Fremont (19-5).
In the final huddle before Graves’ game-winning foul shot, the Silver Wolves didn’t even talk about the free throw. It was almost a given make for Graves, who finished 2-of-5 from the charity stripe.
“We didn’t really talk about the free throw. Sometimes you don’t know if you are going to ice your kid or not, and I’ve never done that before,” Dalebout said. “But I felt like we needed to talk about the scenario after the ball went through the hoop, that we would get on D and not foul. I worried about panicking a bit and not realizing time then.”
Savannah Flanary scored two of her 12 points on a mid-range jumper with 2:40 remaining on the clock that gave the Knights (16-7) their first lead since 1-0 in the first quarter. But the Wolves responded with a 4-2 run of their own on free throws to pull back even at 2:09 to go.
Harley steps up so nicely in the state tournament. She hits such huge shots, and she really has a fearlessness about her. It's neat to see her perform and hit really big shots.
–Fremont coach Lisa Dalebout on Wolves G Harley Hansen
Kelsey McCann put Lone Peak ahead 54-52 on a pair of free throws with 32 seconds left, and the Knights nearly had a foot in the semifinals in the game’s closing seconds.
But Hansen finished off with a put-back shot from under the basket with 12 seconds remaining to tie the game at 54-54.
“Harley steps up so nicely in the state tournament,” Dalebout said. “She hits such huge shots, and she really has a fearlessness about her. It’s neat to see her perform and hit really big shots.”
Every time Lone Peak made a run, Hansen reminded her team to focus on the important elements of the game: defense and clean plays.
“I just knew we had to play clean defense, not foul them anymore and play Fremont ball,” she said. “But we had to play clean.”
After Graves grabbed the rebound on a missed shot by Lone Peak, a group of Knights players swarmed her to draw a foul, which the officials signaled to Megan Erickson, with 1.2 seconds left to set up the game-winner. Even though she missed the first foul shot, Graves’ teammates didn’t bat an eye at the potential game-winner.
“I had total faith in her that she’d make the second one,” Hansen said of Graves. “I knew that she could do it, and she did.”
Kaycee Andersen added 10 points and 11 rebounds for Fremont, which grabbed a 25-19 lead at halftime and looked to steadily stay in front via Hansen down the stretch. Either way, if the final result came down to a close game or overtime, the Wolves felt surprisingly confident; the team has won five games decided by six points or fewer, including a double-overtime thriller against Layton on Feb. 3.
“We’ve been in this position before, and we can get (momentum) back,” said Fremont guard Shelbee Molen, who finished with five rebounds and two assists. “I felt like we did a good job of staying together, staying calm, even though it was hectic and scary at the end. We had full confidence in each other in being able to finish it out.”
McCann finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and two assists to lead Lone Peak, which got 12 points from Aubrey Wilson and six from Allie Weichers.
“I’ve coached a lot of basketball games, but they did things that really made us struggle at times defensively,” Dalebout said. “Shots just weren’t falling for us tonight; I thought we got some good looks, but we just didn’t get a lot of our shots. I hope we can get this figured out.”
Fremont will face American Fork in the first 5A semifinal Friday at 5:50 p.m.
RIVERTON 52, VIEWMONT 46 — At SLCC, Tiena Afu scored 13 points and the Riverton Silver Wolves opened the second half on a 9-2 run before holding off Viewmont in an earlier quarterfinal. “I think we focused on that as a team at halftime,” Afu said. “We got yelled at and knew we had to pick it up as a team. We weren’t playing team ball, and we knew we had to do that in the second half.
“I think it was just because they are good shooters, and they started making all their shots. But once we started making our shots, that brought us back up.”
Kirsten Spencer added 10 points and three steals, including going 8-of-10 from the free-throw line, for Riverton (20-3).
Viewmont’s Katie Toole, who has signed with Utah State, led all scorers with 26 points to add to her seven rebounds and three blocked shots. But the state’s leading scorer who averages 24.6 points per game was held to 10 points in the second half.
“I liked the way both teams played really hard,” Riverton coach Ron Ence said. “Katie Toole is probably the best catch-and-shooter in the state of Utah I’ve seen. Late in the game, we tried some zone, and it helped turned the momentum. They were being a little more cautious, and that was basically it. It was nothing fancy.”
Toole opened the game with seven straight points to help Viewmont (14-9) to a 7-3 lead in the first quarter, and the Vikings held off the Region 4 champs for a 24-22 halftime lead.
But it didn’t take along after the break for the Silver Wolves to pull ahead for good.
“We talked at halftime, and then we just came out and gave it our all,” said Riverton guard Tia Yazzie, who finished with seven points, four rebounds and three assists. “We knew they would bring the pressure; we saw them play. We just wanted to execute out there.”
Riverton hit nine of its final 14 free throws to close out the game, despite a seven-point flurry from Viewmont’s Toole and Mercedes Staples in the final 40 seconds.
Riverton will face Brighton in a semifinal Friday at 7:30 p.m. at SLCC.
BRIGHTON 50, LAYTON 46 — At SLCC, Dani Barton scored 15 points to help the Bengals hold off the Lancers in the first quarterfinal game of the day.
Lindsey Johnson added 11 points for the Bengals, who made free throws down the stretch to become the first team in the 5A semifinals.
Hailey Bassett led Layton with 13 points, including a jumper in the lane with 1:15 to go that brought the Lancers within two at 45-43. After a basket by Brighton’s McCall Christensen, Clara Wood made a jumper with 10 seconds remaining to pull within one possession at 49-46, but the Lancers would get no closer.
Christensen finished with nine points for Brighton, and Wood had eight points for the Lancers.
AMERICAN FORK 45, DAVIS 36 — At SLCC, Jenna Shepherd and Paige Farnsworth had nine points apiece, and Maile Richardson added eight points to lead a balanced Cavemen squad past the Darts and into the semifinals.
Davis’ Meaghan David led all scorers with 11 points to go along with four rebounds and two steals.
