Miners shut down Riverton shooters for big win

SOUTH JORDAN — Following Bingham's convincing 74-60 victory over No. 2 Riverton Friday, the big question is what in the world happened to the Silverwolves shooting touch?

After a decent first quarter, Riverton went into an abysmal funk the rest of the way as it shot a paltry 29 percent, and rival Bingham was more than happy to take advantage with a huge Region 3 victory.

"We don't know whether it was their shooting or our defense, and I'm not going to say which one it was," said Bingham coach Mark Dubach, who added that his team, "puts a lot of emphasis on our defense."

Dubach also puts a lot of emphasis on rebounding, and that played as big a role as anything during what proved to be a decisive stretch spanning the second and third quarter.

With Bingham leading 17-16 after the first, the fifth-ranked Miners gradually began pulling away as they pounded the glass for six offensive rebounds and seven second-chance points in the second quarter alone. At the other end of the court, Riverton only managed one offensive rebound, a bad sign considering its initial shots were way off the mark.

Riverton didn't help its cause either with 10 first half turnovers.

Despite all their hiccups, the 'Wolves were still very much in the game in front of a packed Bingham gymnasium trailing only 30-21 at the break.

That hope, however, evaporated very quickly as Bingham opened the third quarter on a 10-1 run thanks to two field goals by Jonathan Arnell, a three-point play by Brett Sommerville and a 3-pointer by Tyler Strong.

That quick spurt helped Bingham open up an 18-point cushion, a lead that never dipped below double-digits the rest of the way.

"We had some different kids make some big shots," said Dubach. "I thought Davey Johnson was huge early when we were struggling. And then our normal guys made some big shots and did some good things."

Riverton managed to whittle Bingham's lead to 41-31 with 3:12 remaining in the third, but back-to-back 3-pointers by the Miners halted any rally attempts.

Bingham (5-0, 11-5) has now won five straight games, and is starting to play the brand of basketball that earned them the preseason No. 1 ranking. That included having 11 different players score on Friday.

"The ranking early was nice, but it ended up hurting us a little bit because our kids thought they were the No. 1 team and didn't realize how hard they were going to have to work to win basketball games," said Dubach.

Despite the win, Dubach believes Riverton (4-1, 14-2) is still the better overall team, it just had an off night on Friday.

Even Riverton's free throw shooting was dismal, as it made only 25-of-40 attempts. Bingham was marginally better at 26 of 39.

"I don't know that it was easy, but it's just nice to have the newspaper here and get a win, because we were 0-2," said Dubach.

Justin Watson led Bingham with 15 points, while Mike Larsen recorded 15 for Riverton.

---

E-mail: jedward@desnews.com