PLAIN CITY — If the red-hot Viewmont Vikings go on to win the Region 1 championship, they'll probably look back on Tuesday's 52-50 victory over Fremont as the key.
After all, this was the game the No. 5 Vikings overcame a 13-point deficit to beat No. 4 Fremont on a baby hook shot by Sol Jensen with 3.7 seconds remaining.
"Down 13, I wasn't sure we had enough firepower to get all the way back," said Viewmont coach Jeff Emery, whose team has won eight of nine games.
Emery had reason to question whether his Vikings could rally. Down just one after the first quarter, the Vikings scored a whopping four points in a second quarter that included five Viewmont turnovers.
"I told them, whether we win or lose, we need to put our stamp on this game," said Emery.
For Viewmont, that meant stepping up its defensive intensity and creating quality shots. For point guard Chris Romney, that meant silencing Fremont's student body. The junior guard air-balled an off-balance 3-pointer to end the first quarter, a shot Fremont's students reminded him of every time he touched the ball.
Those taunts only got louder as Fremont outscored Viewmont 16-4 in the second quarter.
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"In the second quarter I thought we stopped competing," said Emery. "Fremont showed a lot more desire to win this thing than we did."
The Silverwolves were still clinging to that 13-point lead with 3:27 left in the third quarter as Trevor Higley buried an outside jumper. That's when Romney and Nick Thomson erupted.
Romney converted on a 3-point play to shave the deficit to 10, and then Thomson scored five straight points to whittle it down to five.
"Defense is the key," said Fremont coach Bernie Graziano. "When we do it properly, we're pretty good. When we don't we're not that good."
Fremont's defensive woes continued as Romney buried a 3-pointer and Thomson converted a layup as Viewmont closed the quarter on a 13-0 run.
It only got worse for the Silverwolves. Thanks to two Romney 3-pointers, Viewmont scored the first eight points of the fourth quarter to extend its lead to 48-40. By the time Austin Raught finally ended Viewmont's 21-0 spurt at the foul line, 6:59 had ticked off the clock.
Fremont didn't roll over though. It went on a mini-spurt of its own scoring eight straight points to tie the game at 48-48 with 1:57 remaining.
"We just played in stretches," said Graziano, whose only senior broke his hand last week.
The teams each scored once more before Jensen buried his game-winning jumper on an assist from Romney, who finished with seven assists and 20 points.
With the win, Viewmont improved to 3-0 in league play while Fremont fell to 3-1. Raught led Fremont with 14 points while Ryan Sanchez finished with 13.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com