Preview: Bingham Miners vs. Mountain Ridge Sentinels
Two dominant guards in Addy Horsley and Kya Newton are getting ready to go toe-to-toe. The Bingham Miners will be playing in front of their home fans against the Mountain Ridge Sentinels at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday. Hopefully Bingham focused on turnovers this week since the team gave up 13 on Tuesday.
It may have taken overtime to finish the job, but Bingham ultimately got the result they hoped for. They walked away with a 66-54 victory over Riverton. Given Bingham's advantage in MaxPreps' Utah basketball rankings (they are ranked ninth, while Riverton is ranked 75th), the result wasn't entirely unexpected.
Bingham relied on the efforts of Horsley, who scored 22 points along with two steals, and Brianna Badonie, who scored 28 points along with two steals. The team also got some help courtesy of Kate Nelson, who scored four points along with ten rebounds and two steals.
Meanwhile, Mountain Ridge's recent rough patch got a bit rougher on Tuesday after their third straight loss. They were dealt a 71-42 defeat at the hands of Copper Hills. Mountain Ridge was down 55-31 at the end of the third quarter, and things only got worse from there.
Even though the team lost, they still had their share of impressive performances. One of the best came from Ava Blair, who scored seven points. Another player making a difference was Jessica Maynard, who scored four points along with five rebounds.
Bingham is on a roll lately: they've won five of their last six games, which provided a nice bump to their 13-7 record this season. As for Mountain Ridge, they dropped their record down to 12-8 with that defeat, which was their third straight at home.
Thursday's contest is shaping up to be a masterclass in shooting: Bingham have been dynamite from deep this season, having made 38.7% of their threes per game. However, it's not like Mountain Ridge struggles in that department as they've made 40.8% of their threes this season. Given these competing strengths, it'll be interesting to see how their clash plays out.
Bingham came out on top in a nail-biter against Mountain Ridge in their previous meeting back in January, sneaking past 69-67. One of the biggest obstacles the team faced in that game was Maynard, who dropped a double-double on 25 points and 14 rebounds. Now that she's got a second chance to win this matchup, will Bingham still be able to contain Maynard? There's only one way to find out.
