High school basketball: Sommerville's game-winner lifts Bingham past 'Diggers

LOGAN — It wasn't quite as dramatic as his older brother's, but Shad Sommerville now knows the feeling of burying a game-winning shot.

The Bingham senior knocked down a one-handed jumper in the paint with one second remaining to lead the Miners to a 61-59 victory over Jordan in the semifinals of the Cache Valley Electric Tournament on Tuesday afternoon.

Bingham will now face Oxnard, Calif., in the championship today at Logan High School at 3:15 p.m.

"With (Ben) Clifford on the bench in foul trouble, we felt like Shad was the next guy to make a bucket for us and pretty confident with him being able to score," said Bingham coach Mark Dubach. "I was happy with the play we ran and happy we executed it."

Sommerville's heroics became necessary after Bingham squandered an 11-point, fourth-quarter lead, a rally Jordan's Joe Mero capped with a deep 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining, tying the game at 59-59. Dubach waited until five seconds remained to call a timeout and draw up a play, which his players executed perfectly, with Sommerville receiving the inbounds pass in the paint.

Sommerville finished with 13 points to lead the Miners, while Nate Girsberger and Ty Hannay each chipped in with 12 points.

"Our No. 1 goal when we step on the court is to win; when you win good things happen for your team," said Dubach. "Yeah, there's things we want to get better on, and things we've been discussing. Teams are going to take great shots at us, and Jordan played tremendous tonight. We feel like with everything they brought tonight we were fortunate to get out of here with a win."

Throughout most of the first half, neither team played particularly well in a chippy game that Jordan led 26-24 at the half.

Dubach was particularly upset with how things unfolded on the offensive end, but he blamed himself entirely.

"I'm unbelievably displeased with the offense I've got in place. I'm displeased with myself more than I am with the team," said Dubach, whose team improved to 8-1 with the victory. "Our zone offense is not very good right now, and we're going to get better."

Ironically enough, Bingham was at its best offensively and defensively when the 6-foot-8 Clifford was on the bench in foul trouble. With the Miners trailing 30-26 in the opening minutes of the second half, Clifford picked up his third and fourth fouls in a span of three seconds and was quickly replaced by Parker Brown.

Over the next eight minutes, Bingham outscored Jordan 24-9 to open up a 50-39 lead with 6:27 remaining in the game.

The 'Diggers, who won the 2008 Cache Valley Electric Tournament, weren't done, though. They scored on 10 of their 11 possessions over the next six minutes, chipping away at the lead and ultimately tying the game on one of Mero's four 3-pointers with 19 seconds remaining.