Raise your hand if you thought such a young Bingham girls basketball team would be one of the top teams in Class 6A at this point in the season. 

“The season has been going great,” said head coach Hector Marquez, on the big yellow school bus en route to Provo, Dec. 9.  

Bingham (6-1 at press time) won that game at Provo, too, by the final score of 56-38. 

All told, the Lady Miners have lost one game thus far. 

That game was on Nov. 20, versus Pleasant Grove, a not-so-pleasant score of 65-45 inside The Pit. It was the kind of game a coach dreads; Bingham trailed 30-14 at the half and had to play catchup for the remainder of the contest. 

Spread around that game, however, were four other victories: 67-61 at Mountain View Nov. 18; 58-26 at Viewmont, Nov. 25; 60-39 vs. Layton and that blowout win at Provo. 

What caused the win streak? Balance. 

Across the board, the Lady Miners have had plenty of helpers. 

Evy Roberts has assumed the leadership role. Now that many of her teammates from last season have graduated, the junior guard is averaging 14 points per game—in just 17 minutes per game. Roberts is also shooting 44% from three, and 43 from the field. 

Sophomore Lanie Smith is scoring 10 points per contest—in 15 minutes per outing. Junior Brizzy Cottle, 9 in 12 minutes of action. Junior Veanna Pau’u, 9 in eight minutes. 

As it stands, the Lady Miners have seven girls averaging four or more points per game. 10 are playing four or more minutes per contest. 

Why is there such balance on this team? 

The Lady Miners are unbelievably efficient at sharing the basketball. 

The other, rather telling stat line here is that one of the team’s lone seniors—wing Stacia Peoples—leads the team in assists, averaging three per game. 

Assists could arguably be the most astounding stat of all, because in each of the Lady Miners’ six games, Bingham has six girls averaging two or more. 

Bingham has also been supremely efficient defending the basketball. A whopping 12 girls are averaging a rebound or more per game, led by juniors Veanna Pau’u and Quinn Porter, who are each hauling down five per contest. 

Six girls are averaging one or more steal per game, led by Evy Roberts in that category who chips away at her opponents to the tune of four per outing. 

Those numbers tell a good portion of Bingham’s story through six games during this preseason, but there are things Coach Marquez would probably like to clean up. 

The Lady Miners’ assist-to-turnover ratio for their guard play could be improved; Evy Roberts sits at 1.47, which means that she’s just as liable to create an assist as she is a turnover. Sophomore Lanie Smith’s is at 0.46, which also is a harbinger of potential trouble ahead for Bingham—it that doesn’t get cleaned up by the time the team heads out to Oregon for a holiday tournament and Region 2 action. 

Marquez is well aware of his team’s issues, and said he knows there is plenty of work to do. 

“With a young roster, you never know what team will show up, but there has been progress.”