With big man Justin Watson leading the way offensively, Bingham whittled away at Riverton's lead throughout the third, and eventually tied it at 46 on a layup by Tyler Thurgood with three seconds left in the quarter.

Watson scored eight of his team-high 18 points in the third, while limiting Grim to just six points in the second half after he had 13 in the first.

"We didn't talk about me scoring, but we talked about me stepping up on defense and stopping Grim," Watson said.

Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Bingham seized its first lead since early in the game on a 3-point play by Sommerville, putting the Miners in front 51-50.

"Once we took the lead, I knew we were winning the game," Sommerville said.

It wasn't nearly as easy as the senior was hoping.

Despite increasing its lead to 55-50 with 4:15 remaining, Bingham suffered through a small dry spell in the final two minutes, enabling Riverton to claw back into contention.

The Wolves cut Bingham's lead to 59-58 on a Grim jumper with 1:23 left, and after a questionable shot by the Miners, Riverton was in great position to try to capture the school's first championship of any kind. After Eric Dearden was fouled on an offensive rebound with 10 seconds remaining, the Riverton senior stepped up and made one of two free throws to tie the game at 59.

Sommerville made that last missed free throw obsolete.

Dearden finished with 14 points, while Mike Larsen added 13 for Riverton.

"We just peaked at the right time. There were five really good teams," Dubach said. "I'm just ecstatic for my boys. (Riverton coach) Steve Galley did a tremendous job; that was a great high school basketball game."

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E-mail: jedward@desnews.com