High school basketball: Bingham uses deep bench for road win at West Jordan

WEST JORDAN — Jaguars coach Scott Briggs didn't have a special plan to beat the Bingham Miners on Friday night.

"It's more of a matter of picking your poison," Briggs said. "They do everything so well, you can't just focus on one thing."

In Bingham's 74-66 Region 3 victory over the Jaguars, another poison was created.

The Miners' bench. It was forced to gain a lot of high-pressured experience and came through.

Ben Clifford scored 17 points, Ty Hannay had 16 and Nate Girsberger added 14 more, but the Miners had four starters foul out late in the game, and the players still remaining on the court finally put away a West Jordan rally and improved Bingham's record to 13-1 overall and 3-0 in Region 3.

"Fouls played a big role in this game — yes," said Bingham coach Mark Dubach. "I was playing kids out there that normally don't get to play much."

Bingham led throughout the game and casually built a 15-point lead in the fourth quarter before the fouls changed the players on the court.

All told, officials kept the game in check by calling 48 fouls (Bingham 27, West Jordan 21) and issuing three technicals. Bingham's Shad Sommerville was the first to leave the game, followed by Michael Arnell, Spencer Brown and Clifford.

Accordingly, the Jaguars battled back. A 3-pointer by Jordan Pryor cut the lead to 68-62 with 41 seconds left and sent the decibel level skyrocketing in West Jordan's gym.

"We did a lot of good things," said Briggs. "We got a few turnovers and hit a few 3s. We made it a game again. But you can't make any mistakes against those guys. They're too good."

After a Bingham timeout, West Jordan was forced to foul, and senior guard Jordan Phouthavong proved Briggs correct, calmly nailing four free throws, and Girsberger sank two more.

Logan Parker sealed the win with a blocked shot, which gave Bingham the ball and ended the uprising, sending West Jordan's record to 9-5 overall and 2-1 in region.

Bingham shot slightly less than 40 percent from the field, but made 27-of-31 free throws, and that proved to be the difference. Phouthavong anchored the Miners' bench with seven points — making 7-of-8 free throws.

Jordan Loveridge was West Jordan's top scorer with 16 points and Andre Ashton had 12. Pryor made the game's best defensive play, drawing a huge cheer when he caught up to Clifford going up for a dunk, blocked the shot and sent the ball sailing out of bounds.