Utah State came into Tuesday night’s game with a target on its back after getting ranked in the Top 25 for the first time this season. And for the first 20 minutes, it appeared that the Cowboys might have the 20th-ranked Aggies in their sights.
But after leading by just two points at halftime, Utah State exploded for an 11-0 run to open the second half and cruised to an 83-59 victory over Wyoming.
“I think we came out a little bit sluggish after the emotional win (Saturday over then-No. 13 Colorado State),” USU guard Darius Brown II noted. “But after halftime, we knew we had to get better and just come out and put our stamp on the game.”
The Aggies (15-1 overall, 3-0 in the Mountain West) have now won 14 straight games, which serves as the longest current winning streak in the country. Houston, which opened the season 14-0, suffered its first loss of the year Tuesday at Iowa State.
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Utah State head coach Danny Sprinkle, who is off to the best start of any first-year basketball coach in USU history, has yet to lose a game in the Spectrum at the helm of the Aggies.
“Unbelievable crowd again,” Sprinkle said. “I appreciate everybody coming, especially with the blizzard outside. But the Spectrum never lets you down. The place was rocking.
“When we started making that run and finally got some stops and some steals and some run-out dunks in that second half, the place was just electric. They win games for us.”
Brown, who secured a double-double with more than 13 minutes left in the game, ended up with 13 points, 11 assists and just one turnover, while junior forward Great Osobor, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week, finished with 20 points and eight rebounds.
The duo, who both transferred from Montana State when Sprinkle was hired away from the Bobcats last spring, combined for 13 of USU’s first 16 points of the game, then caught fire again at the start of the second half. After Osobor scored on the left side of the basket, sophomore center Isaac Johnson knocked down his second 3-pointer of the game to extend USU’s advantage to 40-33.
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Brown buried a 12-foot jumper a few minutes later, then after Johnson snared a defensive rebound, he fired a pass ahead to a streaking Osobor for a breakaway slam dunk that extended USU’s lead to 44-33.
That led to a massive eruption from the crowd of 8,214 people who braved an early-evening snow squall in Cache Valley to reach the Spectrum, but Wyoming head coach Jeff Linder elected not to call timeout. That proved to be a mistake when Brown promptly came up with a steal to trigger another fast break that resulted in another transition dunk for Osobor.
“Great’s one of my best friends and my roommate, and we have great chemistry together,” Brown said of Osobor. “We talk about a lot of things with each other — and not just basketball — and really know how to communicate with each other, and that goes a long way on the floor.
“I know where he’s going to be, and he knows where I’m going to be. We had a great relationship at Montana State that’s just carried over.”
The Aggies, who ended up totaling 24 assists, 11 steals and outscoring the Cowboys 14-0 on fast-break points, scored 30 of the first 42 points of the second half in just 12 minutes to leave Wyoming (8-8, 1-2).
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“In the first half, obviously, you put yourself in a position going in the half, and the problem is it’s not a 20-minute game, it’s a 40-minute game,” Linder said. “… I give Coach Sprinkle and their team credit. It’s not like they’re a team where they go out there and wow you with their athleticism, just freaky talented. But what they do have is they got their starting five, they don’t make a lot of mistakes.
“And it starts with Darius Brown and Great Osobor, two guys that were Big Sky players. Darius Brown started his career at Northridge in the Big West and then the Big Sky, and that’s what guys don’t realize is how good players are, like winning players, and that’s what those two guys are. They set the tone.”
After making just one of nine 3-point attempts in the first half, the Aggies went 5-for-13 from beyond the arc in the second half, while shooting nearly 61% overall from the field.
Johnson finished with 10 points, and starting guard Mason Falslev contributed nine points and three assists.
The Cowboys’ leading scorer, Sam Griffin, who came into the game averaging more than 18 points a game, finished with just seven points on 3-of-9 shooting. Senior forward Mason Walters led the visitors with 17 points, and senior guard Akuel Kot totaled 14 points.
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“Wyoming had our respect,” Sprinkle said. “I had a bunch of people say, ‘Hey, is there going to be a letdown after Colorado State?’ We’re not good enough to have a letdown. I love our guys’ mindset of getting better. They came on Sunday and we turned a page. We barely talked about Colorado State. It was over and they locked into the scout and what we needed to do to be successful tonight, and they did it.”
The first-place Aggies will put their winning streak on the line Saturday afternoon at UNLV.
As a plaintiff in the 2022 lawsuit that kicked off years of legal sparring over Wyoming abortion rights, Dr. Giovannina Anthony had waited a long time for Tuesday’s Supreme Court decision on the state’s abortion bans.
“It has been a long road,” she said. One with ups and downs, drawbacks and delays. And even though the high court ruled against the state’s abortion bans, she’s not under the illusion that the fight for abortion access is over.
“But at least today, we can claim a victory and say, it was really worth it,” said Anthony, a Jackson obstetrician. “It was worth it to go four years and keep it up and keep raising money and keep the awareness going. I’m really proud of our team. I’m really proud of what we accomplished.”
In reading the Supreme Court’s decision siding with plaintiffs, Anthony said, “Clearly, this is a court that holds a lot of respect for our constitution.”
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That’s because much of the decision hinged on constitutional language.
Anthony and other plaintiffs argued that abortion is enshrined in the “right of health care access” in Article 1, Section 38 of the Wyoming Constitution. The clause states, “Each competent adult shall have the right to make his or her own health care decisions.”
The state’s attorneys, meanwhile, countered that abortion isn’t health care.
But in deciding what that language means in this case, “all five Wyoming Supreme Court justices agreed that the decision whether to terminate or continue a pregnancy is a woman’s own health care decision protected by Article 1, Section 38,” the court’s summary stated.
As abortion rights activists in Wyoming and beyond celebrated the decision, the anti-abortion camp decried it and called for legislative action.
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“This ruling is profoundly unfortunate and sadly serves to only prolong the ultimate proper resolution of this issue,” Gov. Mark Gordon said in a statement. While the ruling may settle a legal question for the time being, Gordon said, “it does not settle the moral one, nor does it reflect where many Wyoming citizens stand, including myself.”
Anti-abortion activists in the silent March for Life in Cheyenne in January 2020. (Nadav Soroker, Wyoming Tribune Eagle/Wyoming News Exchange)
Gordon asked the Attorney General’s office to file a petition for rehearing the decision, which it will file within 15 days.
The voters of Wyoming should settle the matter once and for all, Gordon argued. “A constitutional amendment taken to the people of Wyoming would trump any and all judicial decisions.”
He called on the Legislature to pass such an amendment during the upcoming session and deliver it to his desk. A constitutional amendment requires a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate to appear on the ballot in the following general election.
Gordon may get his wish during the Legislature’s 2026 budget session, which convenes Feb. 9.
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State lawmakers are already preparing a bill to modify the Wyoming Constitution and clear a path for another attempted abortion ban. Speaker of the House Chip Neiman, a Republican from Hulett, said that he’s been workshopping language with Torrington Republican Sen. Cheri Steinmetz.
“I’ve got to run it by a lot of other people,” Neiman said.
Reps. Rachel Rodriguez-Williams and Chip Neiman listen during a 2023 hearing on their request to defend Wyoming’s abortion ban. (Brad Boner/Jackson Hole News&Guide/Pool)
Ideally, he added, a single constitutional amendment would be considered, although the legislative strategy is still up for discussion.
“We’ve got a little over a month before we have to be in session,” Neiman said. “That’ll give us time to kind of see which is maybe the best plan of action.”
A constitutional amendment would have to navigate the legislative process in a 20-day session geared toward passing Wyoming’s budget. Then, in the 2026 general election, more than half of Wyoming voters who cast a ballot would have to agree to the constitutional change.
Neiman struck an optimistic tone about an amendment’s prospects of passing the first hurdle during the session in Cheyenne.
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“I can’t speak for the other chamber,” he said, “but in my chamber I’ve got a lot of phone calls and a lot of texts from a lot of my legislators who are just beside themselves at what happened.”
Senate President Bo Biteman did not return a phone call before this story published.
Victorious
Chelsea’s Fund, an organization that helps pay for abortion services, was another of the plaintiffs that challenged Wyoming’s abortion bans. Executive Director Janean Forsyth said Tuesday’s decision affirms what her organization has long known: “that abortion is essential health care, and Wyoming women have a constitutional right and the freedom to make their own health care decisions, and that should be without government interference.”
Forsyth was flooded with messages and calls Tuesday, she said, especially from the community of reproductive rights organizations.
“I think that [the news is] a beacon of hope for, not only Wyoming communities and families, but also nationwide,” she said.
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Christine Lichtenfels was Chelsea’s Fund executive director when the original suit was filed and throughout much of the legal battle. Relief wasn’t quite the word to describe how she felt Tuesday, she said.
“In reading the decision, there is just a sense that, ‘Oh, there is reason in the world,” she said. “It makes me think that, yes, Wyoming is the Equality State. We can say that now without cringing.”
(Disclosure: Lichtenfels is currently working with WyoFile on an unrelated legal matter.)
The Wellspring Health Access clinic in Casper is pictured in December 2022, and shows signs of May 2022 arson, including boarded up windows. (Dustin Bleizeffer/WyoFile)
Wyoming’s only abortion clinic, Wellspring Health Access in Casper, was also a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Knowing the decision would directly impact the facility’s fate, Clinic President Julie Burkhart was nervous when she opened it. Reading quickly dispelled her fears, she said, as it dawned on her that the justices sided with the plaintiffs’ legal team.
“We are delighted,” she told WyoFile.
Many people questioned her 2021 decision to open an abortion clinic in such a conservative state, she said. The court decision solidifies an intuition she felt back then about Wyoming residents’ sense of what’s fair and right.
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Burkhart and colleagues expect future challenges to arise, however.
“While we celebrate today’s ruling, we know that anti-abortion politicians will continue their push to restrict access to health care in Wyoming with new, harmful proposals in the state legislature,” Burkart said in a statement. “Patients should not have to live in fear that their health care decisions will be suddenly upended at the whim of a judge or lawmaker.”
Across the state in Jackson, Dr. Anthony anticipates the Wyoming Freedom Caucus will attempt to pass laws that impose targeted restrictions against abortion providers — such as forcing patients to hear a fetal heartbeat or wait a certain time period before the procedure.
“Unfortunately, the fight’s not over,” Anthony said, “but this is a great moment for us.”
Heartache
Abortion opponents expressed sadness Tuesday and vehemently disagreed with the court’s opinion.
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State Rep. Rachel Rodriguez Williams was lead sponsor of one of the abortion bans. The Cody Republican and chair of the Wyoming Freedom Caucus did not respond to a request for comment, but posted about the decision on X.
“My heart aches for Wyoming today,” Rodriguez Williams posted. “Thanks to the decision of four unelected, unchecked attorneys, it’s open season in Wyoming for innocent, preborn babies. Make no mistake: courts can get things wrong, and they sure did get this wrong. I’ll never stop fighting to protect life.”
Anti-abortion billboards can be seen along some Wyoming highways. (Tennessee Watson/WyoFile)
Wyoming Secretary of State Chuck Gray also protested the decision, which he called “outrageously wrong” and “a leftwing activist decision totally out of touch with the Wyoming Constitution.”
Natrona County anti-abortion activist Bob Brechtel, a former Wyoming House member, also expressed frustration with the courts, criticizing the nearly two-year-long wait for a decision and saying he was “ashamed” of the outcome from the high court.
In 2011, Brechtel co-sponsored the bill authorizing a later-successful constitutional amendment ballot measure that now protects individuals’ rights to make their own health care decisions. Born out of opposition to the Obama-era Affordable Care Act, what became Article 1, Section 38 caused some lawmakers to worry about potential unintended consequences.
Fifteen years later, one unintended consequence came to fruition. Reached Tuesday, Brechtel confirmed that he did not intend to protect women’s right to have an abortion in Wyoming.
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“There was nothing in the legislation about killing innocent human beings,” he said. “This whole thing has been completely regenerated into something that it was never intended to be.”
It is Week 4 in the 2026 Wyoming High School boys’ swimming and diving season. It features several medium-sized competitions. After a dual in Douglas on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday are packed with meets. Jackson hosts its two-day invitational with four teams heading to Teton County. There are three-team events in Casper, Gillette, and Sheridan on Friday, plus two five-team meets at Cody and Rock Springs.
WYOPREPS BOYS SWIMMING AND DIVING WEEK 4 SCHEDULE 2026
Saturday also has swim invites at Evanston, Powell, and Sheridan. The schedule for Week 4 of the prep boys’ swimming and diving season in the Cowboy State is below. The schedule is subject to change.
RAWLINS AT DOUGLAS – dual
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CASPER TRI at NCHS – Cheyenne East, Kelly Walsh, Natrona County.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. — A Wyoming man died Dec. 22 in a motorcycle-versus-truck collision in Laramie County.
According to a recently released incident report from the Wyoming Highway Patrol, 24-year-old Wyoming man Kyle Pandullo was headed west on a motorcycle as a van approached from the opposite direction. The WHP reports that the van attempted to turn left into a business entrance, forcing Pandullo to brake in an effort to avoid a crash. His bike tipped over onto its side, sliding into the van.
The WHP lists driver inattention as a possible contributing factor in the wreck.
This story contains preliminary information as provided by the Wyoming Highway Patrol. The agency advises that information may be subject to change.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25216046/AP24010108387950.jpg "11-0 second-half run powers No. 20 Utah State to blowout win over Wyoming")
