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Davis High's Coleman Atwater (1) splits Westlake defenders Carter Campbell (35) and Kyler Hadfield on a drive during a 6A state quarterfinal Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Davis High's Bode Sparrow, right, drives against Westlake's Greydin Anderson in a 6A state quarterfinal Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Davis High's Tradon Bessinger, right, puts a shot up over Westlake's Symon Sua (23) in a 6A state quarterfinal Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Davis High's Coleman Atwater (1) drives toward the paint against Westlake's Slone Sua in a 6A state quarterfinal Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Davis High's Bode Sparrow, left, rises to the basket past Westlake's Greydin Anderson in a 6A state quarterfinal Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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Davis High's Coleman Atwater fires a shot against Westlake in a 6A state quarterfinal Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, at the Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City.

ISAAC FISHER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

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SALT LAKE CITY — One question coming out of No. 2 Davis High’s victory over No. 15 American Fork in the second round of the 6A boys basketball tournament Friday was this: was Coleman Atwater’s off-game an anomaly or a harbinger of things to come?

Atwater answered that query convincingly in the first half against No. 7 Westlake in Monday’s quarterfinal at the University of Utah.

The 6-foot-3 senior guard scored 18 points in the first half and finished the game with 26.

“I don’t think anyone was surprised about the first half today. On Friday, mentally we weren’t totally locked in. We let the environment get to us and didn’t let that happen again,” Atwater said. “I’ve been here before; I decided I wasn’t going to let them dictate the outcome of the game.”

Davis raced to as much as a 14-point lead in the second quarter Monday, then withstood a furious Westlake comeback in the fourth period before advancing with a 65-59 win — setting up a semifinal against rival and fellow Region 1 co-champ Layton at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

After shooting 7 of 20 from the field Friday, Atwater was 8 of 17 on Monday, including 4 of 8 from the 3-point line (all four in the first half).

“Our game plan was to come out with tons of energy to start the game. I came out firing; no regrets. If I shoot it and I’m open, I believe it’s going in. They were falling tonight,” Atwater said.

Bode Sparrow drove the lane for a layup basket midway through the second stanza, giving the Darts a 33-19 margin, before the Thunder closed to 38-29 at the break.

Westlake closed to within three points (42-39) at the 4:35 mark of the third quarter, but Davis regained control at 53-45 after three.

“Of course they made adjustments; their backs were against the wall. No one wants to go home,” Atwater said. “They played a little bit harder to start the second half. Our pace kind of slowed down. We got the rebound or steal and kind of walked it up the court instead of running it. We took our foot off the gas; it’s a mistake we’ll learn from.”

The Darts (22-3) seemed to have the game in hand with a 59-47 lead and 4:55 left, but Westlake (17-8) went on a 10-0 run and suddenly it was 59-57 with less than a minute remaining.

Going back to Friday when Sparrow made the winning play in the closing seconds, the sophomore guard again came through in the clutch.

He made a pair of free throws with 46.6 seconds left, giving the Darts breathing room at 61-57.

“Once we had more than a one-possession lead, we felt confident and played aggressive on defense. I felt good from the line,” Sparrow said. “Stuff happens to us and doesn’t faze us. There’s no doubt. We know when something goes wrong, we can bounce back and make the next play.”

Sparrow totaled eight points, six rebounds and two steals.

Having led the way on offense, Atwater then pulled down two big rebounds in the final half-minute.

“If you ask anybody what wins a game, they’re always going to say defense and rebounding. Most people want to hit shots and do the cool fancy stuff, but I knew if I got a rebound, the game’s over,” Atwater said. “I put all my energy into seeing where their shot was going because that’s how you win the game.”

With one more reference to the Friday contest, where Atwater shot 1 of 7 from the free-throw line, he remedied that with a 6-of-6 performance Monday.

“I did prepare. I probably shot 500, 600 free throws since Friday,” Atwater said. “You want to control what you can control. I can control how much work I put in and the results are I prepared as much as I needed to; it led to confidence.”

JT Turley totaled 11 points with three assists and four steals for Davis. Tradon Bessinger scored 10 points.

Westlake got 20 points from Greydin Anderson.