Wednesday's matchup between Bingham and Orem featured two of the top teams in class 5A and should have been a down-to-the-wire game. It appeared headed in that direction for the first eight minutes of the contest, then the Tiger shooting went cold and the Miner inside play took over as Bingham cruised to a 71-53 win.
Things may have been a little different had it not been for Bingham senior Sandra Rhea. Rhea sparked the Miner offense by scoring the first seven points and accounted for 12 first-quarter points, but that didn't stop Orem from taking an early 14-7 lead. Seeing his team a little out of synch, Bingham coach Rand Rasmussen scrapped the Miners' full-court press."We decided to sit back and play a tight zone defense." Rasmussen said. "This led to a lot of fast breaks for us."
The strategy paid off, as Bingham's zone held Orem to a total of eight points over two quarters, while the Miners racked up 12 fast-break points. By the end of the third quarter, the once 20-18 game was a lopsided 49-26 Bingham lead. Orem managed to cut the lead to 14 behind Adrienne Honeycutt's five three-pointers, but it was too little, too late.
Bingham's inside tandem of Emily Van Dyke and Malinda Lynch scored 12 and 15 points, respectively, as the Miners dominated the inside with 44 points from five feet or less, while allowing only 18 points in the paint.
Next up for the 7-1 Miners is another top 5A team, as they journey to Layton for a New Year's Eve showdown with the 8-0 Lancers. The 6-2 Tigers return home to play Skyline next Wednesday.
Boys' and girls' prep box scores are on the Scoreboard page, D4.
Elsewhere in the state:
Region 13
South Sevier 49, Parowan 39
At South Sevier, 3-2 South Sevier escaped with Region 13 victory over 0-4 Parowan despite shooting 15 of 48 as a team from the free-throw line in a battle of the Rams.
Non-region
Northridge 66, Olympus 27
At Olympus, Melanie Hewitt and Amber Bailey scored 19 and 18 points, respectively, and the 5-2 Knights held the 1-6 Titans scoreless in the third in the easy win.