Three things don’t work well together: shooting woes, giving up a lot of size and your opponent having state title game experience.
Fremont could only control one of those things in Saturday’s Class 1A state title game and the shots just didn’t fall for the Eagles. Fremont missed their first 11 three pointers, shot 30 percent from the field and fell 51-31 to Borden, who repeats as Class 1A champions.
Fremont came into the game averaging over 60 points per game, but their shooting struggles kept than far from that mark.
Chloe Verdin opened the game with the first point and Fremont’s first point ever in the state finals. A Grace Scharlach steal and transition pull up a short time later was Fremont’s first made basket of the game, giving them the 3-2 lead. But Fremont struggled offensively a good deal from there unless it was in transition. Borden’s length was a real issue for the Eagles as they were getting into passing lanes successfully and defending at the rim.
Borden had opened up an 18-11 lead in the second quarter when Fremont started to get a bit more comfortable in areas. A missed Braves three pointer led to a clear offensive board with no Eagle players at the rim, but Mallorie Hufnagle’s hustle play to poke the easy rebound off a Borden player and out of bounds started to show a spark for Fremont. The Eagles were able get it down to 20-15 at the foul line with just under a minute to go in the half. But, as they did all game, Borden responded when Riley Rarick drove to the rim and found Paityn Fisk sneaking out of the short corner for an easy basket.
It was part of Borden’s offensive attack much of the first half, sending a player out of the short corner underneath the bottom of Fremont’s 3-2 zone.
The third quarter saw Borden’s experience really take shape. Two early three point makes from AJ Mallad helped push the Braves lead to 33-17 midway through the quarter. Fremont senior Willow Towers got involved in the third quarter as the only player off the Eagles benchs. With 3:13, she grabbed a big offensive rebound, followed up with a basket. But on the other end, Mallad scored quickly to again negate the Fremont offensive output.
Borden outscored Fremont 18-5 in the third quarter with eight of those points coming from Mallad.
Early in the fourth, Borden extended their lead to 40-20 and forced Fremont to rely more on three point attempts, an area they remained empty in. Those empty three point shots hurt Fremont, who’s defense turned stout. Verdin forced a live ball turnover midway into the fourth, the first of four straight stops for the Eagles, but Fremont only came out of that stretch, finished with a Mya Turner three that was Fremont’s ninth miss from deep in the game.
With 2:52 left in the game, Scharlach’s pull up midrange jump shot was just the 10th made shot of the game for Fremont. At the 2:07 mark, Hailey Heller hit a corner three across from the Fremont bench to give the Eagles their first made long range shot of the night after starting 0-11; Fremont finished 1-of-15 from deep.
Throughout the game, Borden deflections were so huge because Fremont struggled to get into their offense throughout much of the game unless it was in transition. Fremont’s defense was really strong in the fourth as well, but there wasn’t enough time or offensive efficiency to find their way back into a good spot.
Borden outscored Fremont 30-18 in the paint and pulled down 30 rebounds to the Eagles’ 20. Emma Hart led Borden with 15 points and 15 rebounds, while Mallad added 13 points and Rarick scored 10 for the repeat champion Braves.
Fremont got 10 points from Scharlach and 8 from Turner, but no Eagle had more than four rebounds with those coming from Hufnagle and Turner each. The two teams combined for 19 steals with Fremont having 11, paced by three from Hufnagle. Borden shot 45.2 percent from the field while Fremont was held to just 30 percent from the field and 6.7 percent from three.
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