SOUTH JORDAN — Don't send the Region 2 championship trophy to Bingham High School just yet.
Despite trailing by 13 early in the fourth quarter, Alta rallied to beat Bingham 64-58 in overtime Tuesday, a win that moved the Hawks (9-3) to within a game of the Miners (10-2) in the league standings.
"I can't explain in words how excited I am," said Alta guard Greg Anderson. "Our (class) has never beat this team, and I didn't know if we'd be able to tonight."
For most of the game, it didn't look like it.
Thanks in part to Alta's awful shooting, and the hot hand of Bingham's Jake Peterson — who finished with a game-high 26 points — the Miners were in control the entire game.
Alta coach Tony Cannon knows, however, that his team is usually a slow-starting team, and he said, "the shooting gods owed us from the first half." The Hawks made 6-of-25 field goals in the first half, and 10 of 38 after three quarters.
The fourth quarter was an entirely different story.
Down 46-33 in the opening seconds of the final quarter, Alta's aggressive defensive keyed a 10-0 run that whittled the lead to 46-43 with under four minutes remaining.
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"We got the ball inside and mixed it up instead of just relying on our 3-point shooting," said Cannon.
Bingham eventually ended its four-minute scoring drought as Peterson made 1-of-2 free throws with 3:25 remaining. On its next possession, Sloan Baker also only made 1-of-2 foul shots, extending its lead to 48-44, even though it had the potential of being a six-point lead.
A few minutes later, a pair of free throws by Alta's Anderson cut the lead to 50-48, but it was Anderson's play at the other end that swung momentum in Alta's favor.
After Peterson dribbled around Anderson at midcourt, Anderson reached around and tapped the ball away, which landed in the hands of Chase Hansen of Alta. Hansen led the 2-on-1 fast break with Anderson, which resulted in a game-tying layup for Anderson.
Bingham regained the lead at 52-50 on a pair of free throws by Justin Watson, but on the other end Alta's Tyler Quinney had a chance to give his team its first lead since 1-0 after making a layup and getting fouled. Quinney missed the foul shot, but grabbed Alta's 15th offensive rebound of the game to set up the Hawks' game-winning shot attempt — which failed.
In overtime, Anderson helped Alta seize the early 56-54 lead on a 3-pointer, a lead the Hawks never relinquished as Bingham made 1-of-9 free throws in overtime.
"The loss to Brighton (last week) made us realize that we needed to come together as a team," said Anderson, the school's student-body president.
Anderson finished with 15 points, while Quinney led Alta with 20 points.