Fremont needs overtime to subdue Westlake in state semifinal

Taylorsville • Fremont girls’ basketball coach Lisa Dalebout calls her current edition of Silver Wolves the most resilient group she’s led with an ability to overcome almost any obstacle.

Fremont put up some barriers themselves at the most critical time in Friday’s Class 6A state semifinal.

Upstart Westlake, which only won a postseason game for the first time in school history this week, took the the Silver Wolves to overtime, but Fremont got clutch baskets and blocked shots by both freshman Emma Calvert and sophomore Haylee Doxey in overcoming the Thunder 54-50.

“A month ago, we had a game against Northridge that went into triple overtime, so she coach told us, ‘We’ve been through this, we’ll be all right,‘” said Calvert, who finished with a game-high 17 points.

Calvert started the scoring in overtime with a bucket on an assist by Karlie Valdez. She then stuffed a shot by Westlake (17-8) and controlled the rebound. Doxey hit a shot to give Fremont (22-2) a 48-44 lead at the 2:25 mark in OT.

Then it was Doxey’s turn to block a shot inside and give the ball back to the Silver Wolves. That turned into two more points when Mazzie Melaney made a pair of free throws for a six-point margin.

Valdez swished all four of her attempts at the charity stripe down the stretch of overtime to counter 3-pointers by Westlake’s Samantha Hester and Tatum Peterson.

Valdez was the hero of Fremont’s state quarterfinal win over Riverton when she made a shot with 1 second remaining. She had a chance to duplicate that feat at the end of regulation, but her last-second shot was off the mark this time.

But the Silver Wolves defense along with Valdez’ makes at the line set the top-ranked team in the right direction.

“Oh my gosh, they [Calvert and Doxey’s blocks] were awesome. I was like, ‘Yes, thank goodness someone can block on this team because I can’t,’” Valdez said.

Doxey had 16 points and nine rebounds to go with Calvert’s 10 boards.

Hester led the Thunder with 16 points, while Ashley Parry added 13.

Westlake trailed through the entirety of the first two quarters but started the third quarter with an 8-2 run as five different Thunder players registered buckets.

But Fremont, which trailed 33-26 after a field goal inside by Hester with 2:41 left in the third quarter, went on a quick 9-0 run to end the third and reclaim the lead.

“I talked to them a little about it, and we could come up with a lot of excuses why we won’t be able to have legs or whatever,” Dalebout said. “There’s been a lot of obstacles. Things you can’t control, like the weather, long bus rides. But they handle it pretty well. They really do just kind of move on. It’s really amazing to me that they can just be that resilient.”