Utah
Boise State tops Utah State in MW First Round
LAS VEGAS – An individual performance worthy of all-time status. A team effort which makes you think: how far can the Boise State women’s basketball team go if this is the level of play?
“It’s huge, not just for me, but for the team,” Broncos forward Abby Muse said. She became the second-ever player to record a triple-double in the Mountain West Women’s Basketball Championship with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. The performance propelled Boise State to an 85-49 win over Utah State in the first round of the Mountain West tournament.
“I think everyone just needed this game to get back on track going further into the tournament,” the senior said. “A while ago, we were kind of on a high and then it really dropped off this past week, so getting back to where we want to be is exactly what we needed today.”
She was well on her way to the mark with plenty of time left in the third quarter, and perhaps could have surpassed it then and there if coach Gordy Presnell opted to keep her in with 4:37 left in the frame. At the time, all she needed was two rebounds and three assists.
But anything worth having is worth waiting for.
At halftime, her stat line of 10 points, four rebounds and five assists might have raised eyebrows or brought up some ‘what ifs,’ but Muse was just focused on the task at hand: beat Utah State and avenge the three straight losses to end the regular season, which slid them from the No. 2 seed all the way down to sixth.
Her 10th assist was on a play with which the Broncos had found success all night. Against a zone, Muse caught a pass at the elbow, caught a double team and found a wide-open Natalie Pasco in the corner, who drained a 3 to push the lead to 35 with less than three minutes to go.
A perfect ending to a near-perfect outing from Muse and the Broncos. An all-time performance was, in many ways, just what Boise State needed to lift itself out of the funk it had put itself in.
“I’m excited for (Muse),” Presnell said. “All of us were down, the coaches especially, in the last week and a half or so. We worked pretty hard to get to where we’re at and we had a rough week. But I’m excited that hopefully we get some confidence tonight and a little success.”
In the background of Muse’s historic achievement, the Broncos set season highs in rebounds (67) and assists (24). Sixty-seven rebounds was tied for the fifth-most all-time for a single game in Boise State history.
Four Broncos scored in the double digits, including Trista Hull, who tallied 10 points and contributed 10 rebounds of her own for her second career double-double.
The win sets up a quarterfinal against Wyoming, with whom the Broncos split wins this season. With one of the best bigs in the league, the Cowgirls should give Muse much more of a challenge inside.
“It will be a great matchup; they have one of the premier posts in the league and they run great offensive sets,” Presnell said. “They’ve always been a good defensive team, too. They’re very well coached, so we’ll have our hands full. That should be a really good game.”
-mw-
SALT LAKE CITY — A California man in Utah, as part of his duties with the National Guard, is accused of trying to solicit sex from a young teenager.
Joshua Ruben Rodriguez, 29, of Fresno, was charged Tuesday in 3rd District Court with attempted rape of a child, a first-degree felony, and enticement of a minor, a second-degree felony.
The investigation began when an agent with the Utah State Bureau of Investigation posed as a 13-year-old girl on a “popular social media site … in an attempt to locate and apprehend adults attempting to have sexual contact with children,” according to charging documents.
On April 16, Rodriguez sent the agent a message — believing he was talking to a teen girl — that stated, “I’ll be direct with you, I would like to get to know you and (have sex with) your mind into a daze to where you feel like a woman,” according to charging documents.
When the “girl” asked if he had a problem with her age, Rodriguez replied, “I don’t have a problem with your age,” the charges state.
The agent told Rodriguez to meet at an apartment complex in Salt Lake County where the girl lived, claiming her mother would be gone. When Rodriguez arrived, he was taken into custody, the charges state.
“(Rodriguez) does not have ties to Utah. He is a resident of Fresno, California. (He) was in town as part of his military service with the California National Guard,” prosecutors stated in charging documents while requesting he be held without bail pending trial.
ST. GEORGE, Utah (KUTV) — One person was hospitalized at the St. George Regional Hospital after a car rolled and caught fire just south of the Utah-Arizona border.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department in Arizona said its crews responded to the crash near the Black Rock Road exit – roughly two miles south of the state border – on Sunday night.
Upon arrival, crews put out the car fire and found the driver had left the scene. A single occupant, who was able to get out of the car on their own, was transported to the hospital by a Beaver Dam ambulance.
MORE | Crashes
Their condition has not been publicly released.
Details on what led to the crash and the condition of the driver were not immediately available.
The Beaver Dam and Littlefield Fire Department said law enforcement investigated the scene.
BE THE FIRST TO COMMENT
_____
SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Jazz missed out on the NBA Playoffs, but still scored a big win thanks to a coin flip.
In Monday’s tiebreaker coin flip to determine who had the fourth-worst record in the league last season, the Jazz came out winners over the Sacramento Kings, who had the same 22-60 record.
Had the Jazz lost the coin flip, they would have been fifth in NBA Draft Lottery odds. Only the worst four teams are guaranteed to remain within the top eight of the lottery.
If Utah had fallen to fifth, there would have been the chance they could have dropped out of the top 8 teams in the lottery, and owed the draft pick to Oklahoma City, which was top-8 protected in a previous trade.
The Jazz now have an 11.5 percent chance to win the first overall pick in the NBA Draft Lottery, which is scheduled for Sunday, May 10.
-
Milwaukee, WI4 minutes agoMilwaukee Brewers overpower Detroit Tigers to win 12-4
-
Atlanta, GA10 minutes agoWhat this food hall could mean for a south Atlanta neighborhood
-
Minneapolis, MN16 minutes agoEllison, Minneapolis, St. Paul update lawsuit against Operation Metro Surge with new data
-
Indianapolis, IN22 minutes agoIndianapolis, Carmel area fails air pollution measures in new report
-
Pittsburg, PA28 minutes agoCallie DiSabato: Unregulated short-term rentals hurt Pittsburgh
-
Augusta, GA34 minutes agoAttention, shoppers: Augusta-area Walmarts to be remodeled in 2026
-
Washington, D.C40 minutes ago11 hurt after work vehicle collides with Silver Line train at Metro Center
-
Cleveland, OH46 minutes agoHouston Astros at Cleveland Guardians prediction, pick for Tuesday 4/21/26