From Deseret News archives:
High school basketball: Every ballgame matters to Miners
"Every game matters to me. I will always do what I think I need to do to get us into a position to win. I'm extremely competitive," Rassmussen said after his team went onto the Vikings' home court and defeated them 53-42 in what was officially the final preseason warmup for both teams.
After a sluggish start by both teams, Bingham came on strong for the final half of the first quarter to take a 13-4 lead, but it was all Pleasant Grove in the second period as the Vikings scored 12 straight points for a 16-13 advantage. The Miners actually didn't put any points on the board in the quarter at all until 1:08 left when Malorie Dixon knocked down one of the Miners' five treys.
Most teams would be pleased with the five 3-point successes, but Rassmussen didn't like the way his team was playing from the outside.
"We knew coming in that we had to score from the outside, and we didn't do that, but we got points on the break," said Rassmussen.
"They have a post player that took us out of the game. She can block anything in the state of Utah, and she's one of the most improved players in the state over the last two years," Rassmussen said of Pleasant Grove's 6-foot-6 tower, Jennifer Hamson, who scored 17 points and grabbed 12 rebounds on a night when she was suffering from a terrible head cold.
The game was tied at 16 when the buzzer sounded on the first half, but Nicole Yazzie went to the free-throw stripe after being fouled on a 3-point try and calmly sank all three freebies to put the Miners up 19-16.
"I told my players at halftime that I felt Pleasant Grove was a hair tired. I think we wore them out playing so many kids at such a frantic pace," said Rassmussen about his habit of treating substitutions as entire line changes like in a hockey game.
Rassmussen believes his team's depth is directly related to the amount of playing time the girls get all the way through, and he uses that depth to great advantage when he substitutes five girls at a time, giving himself two entire teams to substitute at will.
In that third quarter the Miners took a 40-25 lead by outscoring the Vikings 21-9 in both an improved effort by themselves and a rough outing for Pleasant Grove.
"They couldn't score on our half court defense," said Pleasant Grove coach Glenn Larson, who noted that his team played well in stretches.
"When we got back on defense and didn't turn the ball over we got the lead, but then we started turning the ball over," Larson noted, also complimenting the No. 3-ranked Miners by saying, "You don't get any better playing easy teams in the preseason, so we like to schedule these tough games."
Yazzie knocked down a trio of treys in the game en route to scoring 16 points, and Maddie Hind added nine points in the winning effort. Ten Bingham girls scored in the game.
In addition to Hamson's double-double for Pleasant Grove, Ana Finau had nine points and 10 rebounds for the Vikings.
E-mail: jolsen@desnews.com
