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Kaysville • The Davis Darts huddled in the dull light of the cinder block hallway leading to their locker room, and they shouted and jumped in an adrenaline-fueled maelstrom.
As they dispersed and filtered into a postgame meeting, one Dart jokingly asked senior forward Cole Hally the obvious question: "Why don't you drive to the hoop like that every time?"
A barrage of thunderous dunks on vicious drives from Hally had ignited the Darts to a 60-53 win over Syracuse on Friday night. The victory kept the Darts in control of their Region 1 fate.
"He's a fun player to play with when he's doing that," Davis guard Abel Porter said about Hally's slams. "I don't think he's dunked that much throughout the whole season."
Davis trailed by as many as four in the fourth quarter, but the energy from Hally's dunks rippled through the gym and fueled a decisive surge from the Darts.
"You can't ask for a better environment," said Hally, who had 13 points and five impressive dunks. "It's a smaller gym, but the crowd, when you play like that, they're all just going crazy, and it gets us going. It makes us play better."
The Darts started sluggishly and played from behind for most of the game, though they did enough to keep the Titans from building a large lead.
But then Hally got going in the second half, and the Titans had no answer for his style of play, which consisted of taking the ball to the rack with little concern for who was in his way.
"At halftime, Coach [Jay Welk] got on my case and chewed me out," Hally said. "I wasn't doing exactly what I was supposed to in the first half. ... I play better when I'm angry."
Northridge had handed the Darts their first region loss Tuesday, and Syracuse could have moved into a tie for first place with a win. Instead, Davis' win coupled with the Knights losing to Layton puts the Darts back in the Region 1 driver's seat.
"We wanted this game more than other games," said Porter, who led all scorers with 19 and hit multiple big shots. "Coming off a loss, you just really want to go get it. We came out a little stagnant, but we picked it up."