SOUTH JORDAN — The Bingham Miners proved that basketball is a team game.
Five players working together as a unit and executing a game plan will almost always come out on top of a squad deficient in any areas. The Miners used a total team effort to capture the Region 3 title by beating Riverton 53-42 Friday night in front of their rowdy home crowd.
"This was just one of our goals coming in," said senior Jordan Pendleton of winning the region. "Now, we have some more work to do to finish all our goals."
The Miners balanced attack was the polar opposite of the Silverwolves. Bingham had seven players score in the first half while building a 26-15 lead, and none had more than five points. On the other hand, Riverton was a one man show. Morgan Grim, who has committed to play next year at the University of Utah, was the only player able to put the ball in the hoop as he scored 10 of the team's 15 points. But that was Bingham's game plan coming in.
"We don't do anything special with him (Grim)," said Bingham coach Mark Dubach. "We just try to defend him and make sure that we play our normal strong defense on everyone. I thought our post guys did a good job on him, Brad Mears and Taylor Haberman."
The tactic worked as Grim got his looks, but no one else seemed to be able to hit any shots. The Silverwolves were forced to take shots with a hand in their face. The result was a 5-of-16 shooting performance in the first half with Grim making four of the five field goals.
The second half continued much like the first. If someone else on Riverton had even been remotely shooting well, it may have been the Silverwolves with a share of the title. Grim continued to lead the way scoring 12 of his game-high 22 points in the second half before fouling out with just over two minutes to play.
Bingham continued with its team effort. Pendleton led the way with 11 points, but seven other Miners chipped in as Kyle Harrison (eight points), Brandon Fennell (three), David Pugmire (six), Tyler Strong (six), David Johnson (eight), Haberman (five) and Mears (six) shared the ball and made big plays. All the Miners that scored except Harrison also happened to be seniors playing in their last home game of their careers.
"This has been a really special group of seniors," said Dubach. "They have accomplished a lot, and hopefully they have a little bit more to accomplish."
Riverton made a late run after Grim fouled out as the Silverwolves cut the lead to three at 44-41 with 1:40 to play. The spurt came thanks to a couple of shots finally falling — Riverton hit only 14 of 48 shots on the game, and five of those shots came in the last four minutes — and Bingham missing seven consecutive free throws and turning the ball over three times in a two-minute span. But the Miners closed the game out on a 9-1 run for the win.
"We just need to continue doing what we do," said Pendleton on the Miners' chances of repeating as state champions. "We have five guys that went through it last year, so we know how to get it done. If we just play our game, we definitely have a chance."