5A high school basketball: Fremont pounds Murray

PLAIN CITY — The Fremont Silverwolves have a defense so stifling that even if the offense is sputtering, they can still stay in games and pull out wins.

When the offense clicks like it did Tuesday night in the second round of the 5A state tournament against the visiting Murray Spartans, the game very well could be over by halftime.

Fremont blitzed and bombarded Murray all evening Tuesday en route to a 62-43 win. The win sends the Silverwoves to the 5A quarterfinals where they will face Bingham (21-1) tonight at Weber State University.

"Tomorrow we play with very little prep time," Fremont head coach Corey Melaney said. "We're going to prepare hard and rest up."

Both teams looked lethargic to start the game with neither team hitting a field goal until less than five minutes remained in the first quarter.

When Fremont's Patrick Fishburn finally hit the game's first field goal to give the Silverwolves a 3-0 lead though, the flood gates opened. Fremont hit six of its final eight field goal attempts in the first quarter to take a 17-7 lead. The Silverwolves shot 55.3 percent (26-for-47) from the field overall and 55.6 pecent (5-for-9) from behind the arc.

Fremont led 36-18 at the half.

"Once we got that first point and hit a couple shots I thought we really started going," Melaney said. "It was important for us to get out to a big lead early. Get our crowd involved."

Murray held its own offensively, shooting 51.4 percent (18-for-35) from the field. Unlike the Silverwolves though, the Spartans struggled from behind the arc, shooting just 27.3 percent (3-of-11).

Much of Fremont's offensive success, especially in the first half, came as a result of the usual stellar defense the Silverwolves are accustomed to.

Fremont blocked seven shots Tuesday night, with six coming in the first half as the student section relentlessly chanted "You got swatted, You got swatted." Fremont also had nine steals.

"We love our defense," senior Jake Nish said. "That's our pride and joy."

Fremont jumped ahead 12-2 in the first quarter on a basket by Christopher.

Murray was able to keep the deficit on the edge of single digits for much of the first half, but Fremont closed the second quarter on an 11-3 run to go into the locker room with an 18-point advantage.

Murray put together a 7-0 run to start the third quarter but could never get the lead back into single digits.

Murray's David Collette led all scorers with 21 points on 10-of-14 shooting.

Brock Smith led Fremont with 16 while Nish added 15 for the Silverwolves.

Fremont outscored Murray 34-24 in the paint and outrebounded the Spartans 29-21.