6A boys basketball quarterfinals: Hall dominates yet again in Fremont's 68-55 win over Riverton

OGDEN — Fremont's Dallin Hall dominated second-half play in his team's first-round win over Lone Peak on Monday, making him a natural focus of anything written about the game.

On Wednesday, in Fremont's 68-55 quarterfinal win over Riverton, he was even better.

The 6-foot-3 combo guard notched 38 points in Wednesday's win, upping his total of 25 scored in the first round significantly. More importantly, he led a big second-half surge for his team and was at his very best in the late stages of the fourth quarter to help his team pull away and win by a comfortable margin.

"He was really phenomenal. What's a better word than phenomenal?", said Fremont coach Corey Melaney. "His first half wasn't the best, but man, that kid is just so mentally tough and he has so much confidence in himself and in his teammates that we just ride with him."

Hall wasn't bad at all in the first half, scoring 11 points to help Fremont take a 27-22 lead into the break. But relative to what he did in the second half, his first half performance could easily be forgotten.

Hall didn't score all of his team's points in the third quarter, like he did in Fremont's first-round win, but he did score all but two of them. And the points were dearly needed, with Riverton jumping out to an early 10-2 run to lead 33-29 just a couple of minutes into the quarter.

In response Hall went on to score Fremont's next 17 points, with his final 3-point play during the stretch culminating into a 46-41 lead for his team during the early stages of the fourth quarter.

"He had it going on and we were just going to ride him," Melaney reemphasized.

"I don't know, man. My teammates just did an awesome job of finding me," Hall said of his second-half play. "I just tried to move without the ball a little bit and they found me."

Hall found his teammates, too.

As Riverton finally began to crowd Hall better, he'd drive the lane and dish it out effectively to his teammates. On consecutive possessions in the fourth quarter, he drove hard into the lane and then dished it out for wide-open 3-point attempts, with teammate Tige Voorhees knocking down the first and then Kai Featherstone the second as Fremont built a 58-48 lead late.

"I figured they'd eventually start collapsing and I trust my teammates. We have the best shooters in the state," Hall said. "I just kick it out and try to make the right play."

Turns out Hall made a lot of the right plays en route to 14-24 shooting from the field while dishing out three of his team's seven assists against just two turnovers. Other contributors for Fremont were Baylor Harrop, who scored 13, and Voorhees, who added 12.

Riverton was led by Parker Applegate and his team-high 19 points.

With the win Fremont moves on to the semifinal round to take on the winner of Pleasant Grove vs. Herriman.

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