High school basketball: Bingham validates No. 1 ranking

KAYSVILLE — Visiting teams rarely leave Davis High School victorious, especially the wire-to-wire variety against a team with one of the best home-court advantages in the state.

It's not every day, however, that Davis hosts the No. 1 team in the state, either.

Top-ranked Bingham journeyed north Friday night and earned an impressive 58-49 victory over the previously undefeated Darts to improve to 4-0 on the season.

It was a preseason victory the players and coaches tried downplaying, but one that definitely validates Bingham's top billing early in the season.

"We're a really good team right now, but we have a lot to work on," said Bingham point guard Shad Sommerville, who finished with 19 points. "We're always in there in practice trying to work on our free throws and fundamentals. There's always room to get better, but I think we're doing pretty good right now."

It was an impressive victory for the Miners, who shot 49 percent in a game they never trailed. Defense was the catalyst, particularly when it came to halting Davis' inevitable runs on its home floor.

Midway through the third quarter, Davis used a 9-2 run to whittle the lead to 37-35, but Bingham responded by forcing some key turnovers during an 11-1 spurt opening up a 48-36 lead early in the fourth quarter, its largest lead of the game.

Not surprisingly, the Darts had another run in them.

Trailing 51-40 with 5:05 remaining, Davis' Trevor Webb and Landon Horne combined to bury three straight 3-pointers, cutting Bingham's lead to 51-49 with 3:47 remaining in the game.

As quickly as the Miners lost momentum, their defense regained it, forcing the Darts into four straight turnovers and holding them scoreless the rest of the way.

"That's what this team has built themselves on over the years, even when they were young. They're a very good defensive team and they'll work hard to continue to get better at that," said Bingham coach Mark Dubach.

Bingham set the tone early with an aggressive man-to-man defense which seemed to intimidate the Darts during a four-point first quarter. Substitutes Webb and Morgan Dunford provided a spark off the bench the rest of the game, finishing with 18 and 10 points respectively, but Davis never fully overcame its sluggish start finishing the game shooting 39 percent.

Bingham's Ben Clifford led all scorers with 20 points, including 10-of-12 shooting from the free-throw line. He scored 14 of his team's first 19 points, but after Davis made some defensive adjustments, he didn't score again until the fourth quarter, when he made 6-of-8 free throws.

"It's a good win, they're a great team," said Clifford. "We played pretty well in the first half, there were some stretches in the second half that were kind of iffy. But it's a good win."

The schedule doesn't get any easier next week for Bingham, as it travels to No. 2 Brighton on Friday.

e-mail: jedward@desnews.com