High school girls basketball: Efficient scoring lifts Bingham past Skyridge

It may have had its sloppy moments, but from start to finish, Thursday’s matchup between the Bingham Miners and Skyridge Falcons was all Bingham.

Despite struggling with turnovers, the Miners never trailed in a convincing 64-47 win.

The two major steadying forces for Bingham in the win were guard Evy Roberts and center Veanna Pau’u. The Miners capitalized on Pau’u’s size and touch around the rim and made a clear effort to feed her early.

Pau’u delivered with a personal 6-0 run to open the game and quickly put the Skyridge defense on its back foot.

“We were trying to figure out a way to get her some one-on-ones, and she’s the type of player where there’s not a lot of players that can just deal with her one-on-one,” said Bingham head coach Hector Marquez.

“We were trying to figure out a way to spread the floor, and I think the game plan worked. The girls were willing to sacrifice themselves for that purpose.”

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The game plan worked quickly, and once the defense got focused on Pau’u, it unlocked Roberts’ outside shot. Roberts hit two early 3s, Pau’u had eight first-quarter points and the Miners earned a 17-5 lead.

Bingham earned its lead through its tight man-to-man defense and high-quality shots, but it was struggling to handle the ball against a fast-paced Skyridge team. The few times Skyridge made a run in Thursday’s game, it was because of forcing turnovers.

“Skyridge plays fast, and that’s what they do,” Marquez said. “I thought turnovers might happen, but I knew if we kept the game plan and stayed the course and found open players, it was going to lead to open layups.”

The Falcons sped up the Miners, but Bingham managed to still find high-quality shots to keep its double-digit lead. Roberts was on fire from outside all evening and ended with a team-high 20 points, including six 3-pointers, one of which came just before the halftime buzzer.

She also knew that many of her shots came because the defense was focused on Pau’u.

“(Pau’u) is a dog. She’s really a weapon,” Roberts said. “She opens it up for everyone and knows when to find hers and knows when to kick it out. I think everyone was passing and making the right basketball play.”

Through three quarters, the Miners held a 44-33 lead, though some cracks showed early in the fourth quarter as Skyridge’s Lily Grant got going, hitting two 3s and scoring 10 points in the frame.

“The game was kind of like a track meet,” Marquez said. “The girls were getting tired, and we were trying to keep people fresh and their legs are moving quickly, but they get tired mentally, and then they just forget about the scouting report.”

Marquez took a timeout to address the issue, and the Miners answered with force. Roberts, Brizzy Cottle and Lanie Smith each hit a 3-pointer, while Pau’u kept packing the paint for the dominant win.

The Miners move to 6-1 and now look forward to the Capital City Tip-Off Classic in Oregon, where it will face West Linn, one of the state’s best teams.

The focus, Marquez said, is to give his inexperienced varsity team as much court time as possible.

“We’re just stacking as many days as possible for experience because we’re very inexperienced,” Marquez said. “We only returned two girls with varsity experience, and so this was really good experience.

“Now we’re going to go ahead and play the No. 2 team in Oregon. Hopefully this just continues to build and the girls can continue to get experience.”