Bingham outlasts Copper Hills for berth in 6A championship


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TAYLORSVILLE — The night before every game, the Bingham High girls basketball team gathers for a sleepover at one of the player's homes.

There’s one more sleepover left in the 2017-18 season.

Maggie McCord poured in 16 points and 11 rebounds, and Jaycee Lichtie added 13 points with nine free throws to help the Miners survive tournament favorite Copper Hills, 48-40, in a Class 6A state semifinal Friday night at Salt Lake Community College.

“We really are like sisters; we’re about to go to my house to have a sleepover,” said Lichtie, who made 4-of-6 free throws to close out the game. “We always go over to someone’s house before a game or hang out on the weekends.

“We’re best friends, sisters. I love it.”

Bingham (19-6) will try for its first state championship since 2007 when the Miners won the fourth state title under former head coach Rand Rasmussen. This time, Fremont will be the Miners’ opponent.

“It’s so amazing,” Lichtie said. “We were in the locker room, just crying. It feels so amazing.”

Amelia Angilau added 10 points for Bingham, which scored half its points in the paint and out-rebounded the Grizzlies 38-26, including 24-17 on the defensive glass.

“They love each other so much,” Bingham coach Charron Mason said with emotion in her voice. “They play so hard for each other. They play hard for their families, for the school, for everybody.

“It’s so fun to watch them.”

Eleyanna Tafisi led Copper Hills (22-3) with 12 points, three rebounds and two assists, and Breaunna Gillen supplied 11 points and seven rebounds.

McCord scored eight of her nine first-half points in the first quarter, and the Miners never trailed in the second period in taking a 23-21 lead at halftime.

McCord did most of her scoring in the first and fourth quarters, finishing the game with a double-double as the Miners leaned on her for spurts to pull away from their local rivals, as they have all week.

“Our defense changed, and once we got on the same page defensively, it opened up her up to run lanes in transition,” Mason said. “That was key for her.”

Copper Hills pulled within one, 22-21 with 24 seconds left in the half. But Bingham’s Shanyce Makuei knocked down 1-of-2 free throws with no time on the clock to give the Miners a two-point lead to start the second half.

Tafisi dropped in a 3-pointer midway through the third quarter to give the Grizzlies a 24-23 advantage, their first lead since early in the opening quarter.

Bingham's Shanyce Makuei attempts to save the ball from going out of bounds during Bingham's 48-40 victory over Copper Hills in the Class 6A state semifinals at Salt Lake Community College in Taylorsville on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. (Photo: Jacob Wiegand, Deseret News)
Bingham's Shanyce Makuei attempts to save the ball from going out of bounds during Bingham's 48-40 victory over Copper Hills in the Class 6A state semifinals at Salt Lake Community College in Taylorsville on Friday, Feb. 23, 2018. (Photo: Jacob Wiegand, Deseret News)

Gilles added a spin-move bucket to extend Copper Hills’ margin, and the Grizzlies opened the second half on a 7-0 run.

It was all playing out like the regular-season meeting, when Copper Hills rallied to overtake Bingham 63-54 in the local rivalry Dec. 8, the Miners’ first of six losses on the season.

Lichtie wasn’t going to have any of that this time, though.

“We try not to think of the last game,” she said. “We wanted to make them feel the loss like they did. But our defense was very team-like, and we tried not to think about that other game.”

Makuei gave the lead back to the Miners, capping an 8-2 run over the final two minutes of the third quarter that led to Bingham’s 31-30 edge going into the final period.

Back-and-forth the lead went until McCord hit back-to-back shots, including a Eurostep in transition with 3:49 remaining, to give the Miners a 40-36 advantage — and the rest was up to free throws.

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