South Jordan » Ben Clifford, over the course of his career at Bingham High, has accomplished plenty.
He's got a scholarship to Utah State, he's one of the best players in Class 5A and he's got region championships for three years running.
But for all of those accolades, neither Clifford nor the Miners have done two things over the last three seasons. And that's beating Lone Peak and winning the Class 5A state title.
On Tuesday night with a 64-53 win over the Knights in the second round of the state tournament, Bingham and Clifford leaped one of those hurdles. Step two in the quest for the state crown begins tonight at Weber State against highly ranked Fremont.
"It feels good to finally beat Lone Peak," Clifford said. "That's a great team and a great program. To beat them means that you've really accomplished something and this means a lot to the entire team."
To do so, Bingham dominated the second half, survived a game-high 22 points from Lone Peak's freshman sensation Nick Emery and came up with its usual balanced scoring.
Clifford, a 6-foot-9 power forward, led the way with 18 points and 10 rebounds. Eleven of those points came in the second half. He shot 9-for-11 from the free throw line and even hit a three-pointer in the third quarter.
It also helped that the Miners were able to get a number of transition hoops in the third quarter.
"We needed those run-outs," Bingham head coach Mark Dubach said. "We played great defense in the first half, but Lone Peak did a tremendous job of scouting us and making it difficult to run our offense in the first two quarters. We were able to get some turnovers in the second half and that led to easy hoops."
West 57, Viewmont 51 » Tyrell Corbin led the Panthers with 19 points while Jordan Tanner and Misitana Afeaki each scored 11.
West Jordan 52, Pleasant Grove 50 » Andre Ashton scored 13 points to lead the Jaguars, the defending Class 5A champions.
Copper Hills 67, Brighton 57 » Steven Larson scored a game-high 28 points while Steven Cordova had 21 for the winners.
Davis 59, Jordan 52 » Landon Horne led a balanced effort by the Darts with 14 points and nine rebounds.
Skyline 66, Layton 62 » Jaden Jackson led Skyline with 25 points.
Alta 59, Syracuse 35 » Kyle Davis led the Hawks with 14 points.
Fremont 62, Murray 43 » Brock Smith led three double figure scorers with 16 points.
Class 5A
Today
At Weber State
Quarterfinals
» West Jordan vs. Davis, 2:15 p.m.
» West vs. Copper Hills, 4 p.m.
» Skyline vs. Alta, 5:30 p.m.
» Bingham vs. Fremont, 7:15 p.m.
Class 4A boys
Thursday
At Weber State
Quarterfinals
» Springville vs. Provo, 2:15 p.m.
» Mountain Crest vs. Bountiful, 4 p.m.
» Sky View vs. Timpview, 5:30 p.m.
» Highland vs. Lehi, 7:15 p.m.
