High school basketball: Pleasant Grove upsets Bingham

TAYLORSVILLE — It's a good thing this year's Cinderella has a friend who also wears size 10 shoes.

With a little more than a minute left in Pleasant Grove's quarterfinal game against Bingham, Viking senior Danyele Hoffman was running — although not from a handsome prince — when her foot tore through the front of her shoe.

"I actually had a dream that my shoe broke in a game," said Hoffman after the Vikings upset Bingham 61-53 Wednesday night in the 5A State Tournament at Salt Lake Community College. "It's a good thing one of my buddies wears the same size shoes. I have big feet."

Bingham called a time out and Hoffman, with some help from her teammates, changed shoes so quickly her coaches were joking that the bench felt like a NASCAR pit.

Pleasant Grove, a No. 5 seed from Region 4, wasn't expected to win its play-in game last Saturday. And now, five days later, the Vikings earned the right to face the defending 5A champs of Syracuse in Friday's semifinal.

"I think we're destined to play," said Vikings coach Glenn Larson. "Two years ago they beat us by one and last year they beat us in the title game."

The 13-10 Vikings had to beat Layton, Lone Peak (Region 4's champions) and Bingham (a No. 2 seed from Region 3) to earn that opportunity.

Larson said he challenged the Vikings to crash the boards as they'd lost a couple of contests to poor play in the paint this season. Pleasant Grove outrebounded Bingham, but not by much.

It was the first-half play of center Rebecca Clement and the second-half play of Britney Johnson and Hoffman that made the difference for the Vikings.

"We couldn't find anything in the first half, and then we found Rebecca," said Larson.

Clement finished with 18 points, eight rebounds, three steals and three blocks.

"We knew the Bingham game would be hard," Clement said. "All the small things had to happen for us to win."

She said they take comfort in the fact that the state tournament can be unpredictable — in a good way.

"We knew they were doubling Danyele, so the rest of us had to step up," Clement added.

Hoffman is such an athlete, quick with incredible leaping ability, her teammates are sometimes caught off guard by her passes or moves.

"You definitely have to be ready for any pass," Clement said with a smile.