High school basketball: Vikings oust Miners from 5A tournament

SOUTH JORDAN — MacKenzie Larson had the game of her life. And it took every bit of that impressive outing for the Pleasant Grove Vikings to waltz right into the wild and raucous gym of the No. 2-ranked Bingham Miners and walk right back out with an upset victory in the second round of the 5A state basketball tournament.

"Wow!" was all Pleasant Grove coach Glenn Larson could get out immediately following the game.

And that was a perfectly apt description of the contest from beginning to end. The Vikings knew coming in that they could defeat the Miners on their own court despite the backing of a large and loud crowd because they did just that earlier this year.

But in spite of that, the Vikings were expecting the battle of their lives, and they got just that right up until the very end of the 47-43 victory that sent Pleasant Grove straight into the quarterfinals of the state tourney and Bingham home to stay for the year.

"I knew it was going to be a battle, and it certainly was. Every time we thought we were going to get a 10-point lead, they came right back, and we didn't expect any different," said Larson, who couldn't stop grinning.

The Vikings did forge leads of eight points in the second period and seven in the third period, but Bingham kept coming back, even taking a four-point lead of its own in the third quarter for the Miners' largest advantage of the game.

And the entire fourth quarter had parents and other fans of both schools biting their nails as Pleasant Grove went out to a five-point lead early, then Bingham tied things up twice — at 42 and 43.

But with a mere 37.9 seconds left on the game clock, Jennifer Hamson, who the Miners had been sticking to like glue the entire game, sunk the go-ahead and what turned out to be the game-winning layup, giving herself 12 points in the game.

After that shot, the Miners had their chance at a tying bucket taken away by a Pleasant Grove steal, followed shortly by Rebecca Clements heading to the free-throw line. She nailed both freebies with 16.5 seconds remaining, making the Miners need two possessions for a win.

But the Miners never did get a shot at the second possession, as they missed a shot with 5.5 seconds, Pleasant Grove rebounded and breathed a sigh of relief at the upset victory over a team that's been on a roll the latter part of the season.

Much of the credit belongs to Mac Larson, who finished the game with 18 points with a plethora of shots, giving the Vikings every chance to steal the victory.

"Mac came through big for us. Then Jen hit that big shot at the end," said Larson, who was thrilled to be heading to Salt Lake Community College for the 5A state quarterfinals against Clearfield tonight at 7:15.

"We know it's physical in the state tournament. Our region prepared us for that. We know how hard it is to beat a No. 1-seed on their home floor, and both teams came to play," said Larson.

Dezz Ramos picked up 17 points for the Bingham Miners, but 12 of those came in the first half. Nicole Newbold added 14 for Bingham, and Rachel Gines added seven.

Danyele Hoffman ran the game and finished with eight points, including two early treys, for the Vikings.

e-mail: jolsen@desnews.com