5A girls high school basketball: Miners blow past Weber Warriors

TAYLORSVILLE — The Miners pride themselves on playing as a team and never did they display that better than in their quarterfinal win in Thursday's 5A state tournament.

The Bingham defense stymied anything and everything the Warriors wanted to do a they held them to zero field goals until mid-way through the third quarter.

"When we're playing good defense, it definitely makes me try harder," said senior Maddie Hind, who scored five points and grabbed six rebounds in just 10 minutes of play. "We're very competitive with each other, and we all want to play well defensively. We all know defense wins championships."

The Miners were so dominant that no player was on the floor more than 14 minutes, and 18 players got into the game for three minutes or more. It is a luxury that not many coaches have at this point in the season.

"You always try to look ahead a little bit," said Bingham head coach Rand Rasmussen of resting his normal varsity players most of the game. "It's nice because I think for our youngest kids, in playing two or three minutes here at the state tournament, it's probably worth five of six JV games."

Freshman Dezz Ramos ended up being the game's high scorer with 11 points. Chalese Fankhauser added 10 points, four rebounds and two assists.

Junior Nicole Newbold added nine points and six rebounds in the win that allows the team to advance to the semi-finals of the 5A state tournament. Third-ranked Bingham will meet top-ranked American Fork at 7:40 p.m. Friday at Salt Lake Community College's Lifetime Activity Center.

Rasmussen said he was pleased with the win, although he noted the squad didn't do anything special against the Warriors.

"We just try to play good team defense," Rasmussen said. "We put a little pressure on them ... You've got to defend the whole court."

Hind said she prefers coming off the bench to starting.

"I love my role," Hind said. "I love being able to come in and give my team fresh legs."

The Warriors not only had trouble making field goals, but they also struggled at the foul line. They shot 17 percent from the field and 38 percent from the free-throw line.

Senior Shay Sorensen led the team with nine points and 10 rebounds.

The Miners will not have long to savor their victory, something they're OK with.

"The state tournament is kind of like win, survive, and move on," Rasmussen said.