TAYLORSVILLE — Fremont’s title defense of its Class 6A girls basketball championship couldn’t have started much worse.

The Silver Wolves didn’t make a shot for nearly four minutes of the opening quarter against American Fork, and trailed 14-4 with just under three minutes remaining in the period.

Then the team that starts sophomore standout Emma Calvert and freshman rising star Timea Gardner woke up — but first on defense.

Calvert finished with 21 points, and Gardner added 17 points, 12 rebounds and three blocked shots as Fremont pulled away from the Cavemen, 53-42, to advance to the 6A quarterfinals Monday at Bruin Arena at Salt Lake Community College.

Haylee Doxey supplied nine points and eight rebounds for the Silver Wolves (20-1), who got seven assists from Halle Duft.

“They played their age a little bit at the beginning,” said Fremont coach Lisa Dalebout, whose team will face Herriman in the Mustangs' first-ever quarterfinal Wednesday. “It’s hard to prepare (underclassmen) for the state tournament, and the opening game, too.”

Halle Nelson had 18 points and seven rebounds to lead American Fork, and teammate Jamie Shepherd supplied 14 points and four assists.

But the Cavemen (11-12) came out aggressively — not just in playing style, but on the scoreboard.

American Fork out-hustled the defending 6A champs who sailed unblemished through Region 1 play, going up 9-0 on Sydney Bushman’s and-one play two minutes into the game.

Fremont was held without a field goal until Gardner scored on the break with just over four minutes left in the first quarter as the Cavemen led by as much as 14-4 in the opening stanza.

The Silverwolves rallied, ending the quarter on an 8-0 run to pull within 14-12 at the quarter break.

“We were panicking a little bit, but coach pulled us in and said we need to get our stuff together,” Gardner said. “We came back out, pulled together, stayed strong, and played like Fremont.”

Fueled by the long arms of a 2-3 zone defense and rim-protector Gardner, Fremont retook the lead with a 14-0 run and led by as much as 20-16 when Calvert scored her 10th point of the half with 1:45 left.

“We use the momentum and energy on defense to help us get baskets on offense,” said Gardner, who is already collecting scholarship offers from the likes of UCLA and Louisville. “It fuels us. We sometimes play rushed a bit when we get a steal, but we need to remember to calm down a bit on offense.”

But the Cavemen didn’t die, either, ending with back-to-back buckets and regaining the 21-20 halftime edge on Halle Nelson’s fadeaway trey at the buzzer.

Fremont wouldn’t go away, but neither did American Fork. The Silver Wolves found its game, going inside-out with Gardner and Calvert — often to each other — in building up a 10-point lead, 37-27 midway through the third quarter.

But the Cavemen ended the period on a 7-0 run, capped by Sydney Bushman ‘s buzzer-beater to pull within a trey, 37-34.

The Silver Wolves had one final run in them, though, putting the game away with a 10-2 spurt in the fourth quarter and salting the game away from the free throw line, including four makes from the foul line by the young Gardner.

“She’s really special because she’s talented, but she’s worked as hard as anyone I’ve coached,” Dalebout said of Gardner. “It’s special when you get a girl like her who matches her intensity and work ethic with her talent.”

Herriman 57, Hunter 26

The Herriman girls basketball team woke up Monday morning having never advanced in a postseason tournament since the school’s inception a dozen years ago.

Somebody had to be the first.

Why not these Mustangs?

Jalyn Van Dyke hgad 13 points and 10 rebounds, and the Mustangs held Hunter to 30 percent shooting to advance to the Class 6A state quarterfinals with a 57-25 win Monday at Bruin Arena at Salt Lake Community College.

“They’re pretty excited in (the locker room); you can hear them,” first-year Herriman coach Kent Smith said. “They thought they got hosed a bit with some calls that went against them, and they are excited to win.”

In a game where points were at a premium — the two sides exchanged defensive blows en route to a Herriman 9-7 lead after the first quarter — the Mustangs (13-7) relied on its defense, even when it felt like the lid would never come off the basket.

Hunter shot 22 percent with 16 turnovers in the first half, and Herriman scored 16 points off turnovers to cruise to a 27-11 lead at the break.

“If they don’t score, then you win. If we focus on defense, then most of the time defense turns into offense,” Van Dyke said. “We just kept focusing on defense and knew the shots would come. And they did.”

The Mustangs finished with 28 turnovers, scoring 27 points that included six points on the break in rolling to the win.

Angel Lui led the Wolverines (11-11) with 14 points and seven rebounds.

“It was a challenge to get going,” Smith said. “But we hang our hat on our defense. Points come and go, but you can always hang your head on defense.”

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