6A boys basketball: Unselfish Davis marches past Kearns into 6A semis

OGDEN — The game plan was a fairly simple one for the Davis Darts: share the basketball.

Kearns' athleticism defensively can present matchup problems for anyone in the state, and not knowing exactly how Kearns would defend his team, Davis coach Chad Sims had a simple message for his players.

"We talked about before the game we wanted to share the ball. If we were open, we were going to take it no matter who it was. I thought our guys did a really good job sharing the ball," said Sims.

That unselfishness combined with five hot hands made for a dominant performance at Weber State as the Darts rolled past Kearns 71-52 for the 6A quarterfinal win.

Davis shot the ball at a 63 percent clip, including making 10 of 17 3-pointers to advance to the semifinals for the first time since 2015.

Kearns' defense helped a lot off dribble penetration, and Davis never hesitated swinging the ball to the open man, finishing with 16 assists led by Brendon Redford's six.

Redford was one of four Davis players who scored in double figures, with Jake Sampson leading the way with 18 points on 5 of 9 shooting from behind the arc.

"Every one of our players is a good scorer, so when we feel like we have a mismatch on a certain guy we'll pick on it," said Sampson, who had the game-winning shot in a first-round win over Westlake.

Davis set the tone on both ends of the floor in the first quarter, which prevented Kearns from ever generating the type of momentum that can snowball quickly with its athleticism.

"We knew if we didn't turn the ball over and we could rebound the basketball, we knew they weren't going to be able to get into their rhythm," said Sims, whose team only turned it over five times.

In the first quarter, Sampson, Trevan Leonhardt and Redford all hit 3-pointers as Davis opened up a 25-11 lead by the end of the quarter.

Davis settled its half-court offense in the second quarter and, aided by two more 3-pointers from Sampson, it maintained the 37-23 lead until halftime.

Kearns came out with an aggressive mindset offensive in the third quarter and trimmed the lead to 43-35 at the 3:35 mark with a 12-6 run.

The Darts, however, closed the quarter on a 7-2 run to regain the lead, and Sims credited K.O. Fisher with starting the run with a key offensive rebound and a key steal.

"Two consecutive possessions where K.O. made a play for us and really helped us out in that situation," said Sims.

Fisher missed the first month of the season as he worked his way back from a second ACL surgery, but he was a key contributor throughout region and in Wednesday's game he made big contributions with nine points, five rebounds and four assists.

Kearns remained within relative striking distance early in the fourth quarter, but Davis eventually finished things off with three straight 3-pointers — including two by Redford when conventional wisdom says Davis should've been spreading out the offense and running clock.

"Brendon Redford has been in those moments and I trust Brendon, and I love the heck out of him, and make or miss, we were OK with it. We're lucky he made it," said Sims.

Davis returns to action on Friday in the 5A semifinals against American Fork at 4:10 p.m.

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