High school boys basketball: Riverton ignores Bingham serenade, hangs on for narrow victory

RIVERTON — When Riverton guard Sean Neilson earned his first trip to the free-throw line, the last thing he expected was to hear the Bingham student section serenade him with songs.

The rowdy contingent of Miner students offered a rendition of "Jingle Bells" on the first free-throw attempt and followed by bursting out in a chorus of "Happy Birthday" on his second attempt.

Neilson missed both.

"The first two I was a little shocked, so that's probably why I missed them," Neilson said. "But the others — I just zoned them out."

By game's end, the Silverwolves had Bingham singing the blues. Riverton rallied from a 12-point deficit by forcing eight fourth-quarter turnovers and claimed a 41-36 victory over the Miners on Friday night.

Neilson finished with 17 points to lead the Silverwolves (11-1) and Scott Friel added 12.

Riverton nearly trailed from start to finish after enduring a sluggish first quarter. The Silverwolves did not take their first lead until Friel picked Ben Clifford's pocket and took the ball in for a layup to put Riverton up 36-34 with 1:45 remaining.

Bingham (7-5) seemed well on its way to a dominating victory after Remington Peck scored back-to-back baskets — and capped the second with a free throw — to make give the Miners a 29-17 lead with 2:13 to go in the third quarter.

But the Silverwolves fought back. Garrett Gundestrup hit a couple of huge 3-pointers to ignite a 21-5 run over the final nine minutes that helped hand Bingham its second straight loss this week.

Defense was the biggest difference-maker. Starting at the five-minute mark in the fourth quarter, Riverton forced Bingham to commit six turnovers in a three-minute span. The Silverwolves turned those into three critical baskets on the other end.

Friel credited the coaching staff with keeping the team level-headed when it fell behind in the third quarter.

"They just told us to get after it and go for steals," Friel said. "We knew (they) were down in the foul count. We were up and they were down. We knew they would be fouling us, so we just had to be extra aggressive."

Aggressive play helped dig Riverton out of a hole that passive play had created. The Silverwolves fell behind 10-2 after one quarter while showing tentativeness on offense.

They did not score their first field goal until Friel drained a 3-pointer two minutes into the second quarter. Despite the anemic offensive effort, Riverton only trailed by one, 13-12, at halftime.

"We had a football score at halftime, and it's not exactly what I like to watch," coach Steve Galley said. "I was hoping for a little more scoring. You hold a team to 13 points at half, you're feeling pretty good — unless you're only scoring 12."

Bingham wasted no time jumping on Riverton in the third quarter. Peck scored nine of his 15 points to fuel a 17-6 run that helped the Miners take a 31-20 lead with 1:39 left in the third.

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