Utah
History making win for Utah State
Shortly after the San Jose State basketball team arrived in Cache Valley in preparation for Wednesday night’s game at Utah State, the student-led group of Aggie spirited athletic fans known as The HURD attempted to make amends for a previously unfulfilled promise made to Spartans’ head coach Tim Miles.
Now in his fourth season at SJSU, Miles was gifted a half gallon of chocolate Aggie Ice Cream when he arrived at his hotel on Tuesday, and he took the time to thank The HURD and post a photo of himself on social media enjoying some of the frozen treat.
But by halftime of Wednesday’s game against the Aggies, the veteran coach was suffering from something far more painful than an ice-cream headache.
Utah State absolutely dominated San Jose State, 105-57, at the Spectrum to record the largest margin of victory in a conference win in school history, bettering a 45-point win against the Spartans on Dec. 21, 2020.
“It was just a disappointing night for San Jose State,” Miles declared. “I thought that Utah State was clicking on all cylinders. They were great the way they shot the three. I think six different guys hit threes in the first half, and that really set the tone for the whole game.”
Led by graduate guard Ian Martinez’s game-high 22 points, the Aggies held a 47-24 advantage at halftime and led by as many as 51 points in the second half. All 12 USU players to see action scored at least two points, with guard Mason Falslev (13 points), guard Dexter Akanno (13 points), wing Tucker Anderson (11 points) and guard Deyton Albury (10 points) all scoring in double figures.
Utah State, which was coming off a tough, three-point loss at New Mexico on Sunday, shot 63.6% from the field in the second half, 51.5% for the game and knocked down 13-of-25 (52%) 3-point attempts.
“I thought our guys didn’t let one loss correlate to another,” USU head coach Jerrod Calhoun said. “We’ve talked about mindset for the last 48 hours. Credit to the leaders of our team, Ian and Mason and Drake (Allen), some of those guys that have been around college basketball. They understand the highest of highs and the lowest of lows.
“They had the attention to detail, the defense, the physicality, the rebounding in this game. I’m really proud of our guys.”
The lopsided victory helped the Utah State (23-4 overall, 13-3 in the Mountain West) hold onto second place in the conference standings. But the Aggies did pull within a game of first-place New Mexico (22-5, 14-2) thanks to the Lobos’ 86-78 loss at Boise State Wednesday night.
Utah State has four regular-season games left, starting with Saturday’s home game against San Diego State. The Aztecs (18-6, 11-4) are currently tied for third place with Colorado State (17-9, 11-4).
San Jose State (12-16, 5-11), which hasn’t won in the Spectrum since 1982 and is 4-42 all-time in Logan, gave the Aggies a little scare in the first game of the season in San Jose before losing 85-78 on Jan. 7. But after taking a 4-2 at the start of the rematch, not much went right for Miles’ club as USU scored 10 of the game’s next 12 points.
Former Aggie Josh Uduje, who notched those first two field goals for the Spartans, missed his next 12 shots of the game and San Jose State’s leading scorer at 16.4 points per game ended up scoring just four points in 31 minutes. It was a disappointing return to the Spectrum for Uduje, who was named the co-Sixth Man of the Year last season in the Mountain West after playing a key role for the Aggies in their conference championship run under former head coach Danny Sprinkle.
Uduje initially announced he was staying at USU for another year after Calhoun was hired last April, but then he switched his commitment in May and ended up signing on with the Spartans. Uduje, who was still greeted warmly by the Spectrum crowd of 8,921 on Wednesday, played against the Aggies despite missing the SJSU’s two previous games with elbow and back injuries.
“I thought the crowd really treated Josh with the respect that he deserves; that team last year was pretty special,” Calhoun said. “… As long as I’m the coach at Utah State, which is hopefully a long time, he’s always welcome here. He’s a class act kid.
“… But he’s been having some back issues and hasn’t played in a couple of weeks, but we knew he’d play in this game,” Calhoun added. “Josh is a big focal point of their team, and he gets 16 points a night. So, we wanted to crowd him and make life hard for him. And yeah, he struggled. Just 2 for 14. But credit our guys and our defense.”
Overall, San Jose State shot just 36.8% from the field, were 9 for 32 (28.1%) from 3-point range and committed 13 turnovers to just six for the Aggies.
The Spartans, whose second-leading scorer Will McClendon missed Wednesday’s game with a knee injury, got 15 points each from graduate guard Donovan Yap and junior forward Sadraque Nganga.
“One thing we’ve really talked about lately is defensive stamina, and there were times in the second half we gave up some easy points,” Anderson said. “But we know what we’re capable of, and we’re trying to focus on our strengths and coming out in the second half, not looking at the score and just playing as hard as we can for 20 minutes in the second half.
“We seem to have some really good first halves, but second half defense is where we’ve struggled sometimes. So, we’ve got to keep getting better at that.”
Anderson, who went 3-for-6 from 3-point range against the Spartans, credited Allen for setting him up for an easy dunk in transition in the second half, as well as for a behind-the-back pass from the top of the key that Anderson turned into a 3-pointer on the following possession.
“I think Drake’s been almost like a big brother to me,” Anderson said of Allen, who also flew down the lane in the second half for the most spectacular dunk of the night. “He’s the guy that’s always talking to me and always tells me to keep shooting, and he gave me some good passes tonight.”
Often called the “Forgotten War,” the conflict in Korea during the 1950s holds a handful of critical battles at risk of being lost to history.
Among them: The Miracle at Gapyeong, during which 240 soldiers from the Utah National Guard defended themselves against surprise attacks from thousands of enemy soldiers — without suffering a single fatality. Despite being vastly outnumbered, the Utah battalion stuck together to force the Chinese and North Korean forces to surrender after 300 of their soldiers were killed and another 800 were captured.
On the 75th anniversary of that battle, Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy visited the Korean War memorial in Seoul to honor the soldiers from the Beehive State.
“Because of their sacrifice, the Republic of Korea stands today as a strong, free, and prosperous democracy. This is why gatherings like this matter,” Maloy said in a copy of her speech, which was obtained by the Deseret News. “The Korean conflict is known as the forgotten war. It is important that we remember.”
During the Chinese spring offensive mission on May 26, 1951, more than 200 Utah soldiers were left unprotected on the frontlines near Gapyeong, South Korea. During the night, the battalion faced surprise attacks from Chinese and North Korean soldiers, but managed to fend them off.
The successful battle was lauded as both a military triumph as well as a spiritual miracle for the Utah soldiers who credited their faith, discipline and unity for the victory.
Those members of the 213th Battalion became a symbol of courage and faith within the U.S. Army and Utah National Guard, while veterans later compared their faith to the story of the 2,000 young men known as stripling warriors from the Book of Mormon.
“The Miracle of Gapyeong is more than a military victory remembered in history books,” Maloy said. “It represents courage under impossible circumstances, sacrifice for others, and the enduring bond between allies who stood together in defense of freedom.”
Maloy honored the anniversary on Tuesday local time, coinciding with the Memorial Day holiday back home — which the Utah lawmaker invoked as a way to ensure the Korean War is remembered in the same way as the annual U.S. federal holiday.
“To our veterans: America and Korea owe you a debt that can never be fully repaid,” Maloy said. “Your service protected freedom, defended democracy, and helped build one of the strongest alliances in the world today. The story of the Miracle at Gapyeong reminds us that we’re all part of something bigger than ourselves. That heroism should be remembered, honored, and passed down.”
“As we honor your legacy,” she added, “may we recommit ourselves to the values for which you fought: freedom, sacrifice, service, and peace.”
SALT LAKE CITY — The future of flight appears poised for takeoff in Utah, with influential leaders at the state and federal level voicing their support and detailing their efforts to bring air mobility to the Beehive State during Utah aerospace and defense company 47G’s inaugural Project Alta Summit.
The summit convenes aviation and transit experts at national and global levels with a shared goal of bringing electric and autonomous aircraft into operational use across transportation networks, emergency medical response and critical logistics systems.
Day 1 of the summit wrapped up with a conversation between Carlos Braceras, executive director of the Utah Department of Transportation and Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy.
Braceras opened by telling Kennedy a story about a trip he took to Singapore in 2019 for the Intelligent Transport Systems World Congress. While there, he had the chance not just to sit in, but to fly an aircraft reminiscent of the air taxis showcased by Project ALTA.
“After 2019, I thought, you know, we’re right on the cusp of this becoming something that we all use every day, all day long,” Braceras said. “As I look at where we are right now … I’m a little frustrated with the lack of speed there has been in this idea of the connected autonomous vehicle.”
Braceras pointed out that his main draw toward autonomous air mobility is the impact it could have on crashes and accidents that claim the lives of some 40,000 Americans annually.
He added that he sees Utah as the place where autonomous aircraft will, quite literally, get off the ground — a sentiment shared by Kennedy.
Kennedy noted that at the federal level, policy is quite hard to advance, even saying that the system is “designed to slow things down and destroy things.” He doesn’t think Utah suffers from the same affliction.
“What we have in Utah, though, is an organized, orchestrated willingness to work together, Democrats and Republicans. As a state legislator for 10 years, I saw this regularly. We were willing to work together for the common good of our people,” Kennedy said.
When it comes to air mobility, Kennedy said Utah benefits from an ecosystem where its politicians at the state and federal levels are eager to work with the state’s universities, businesses, military bases and agencies like UDOT to advance the air mobility mission.
The Federal Aviation Administration in March selected Utah as one of eight projects nationwide for the Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing Integration Pilot Program, a three-year initiative designed to help safely integrate advanced aircraft into the national airspace.
“We were given one of those spaces, even though we’re small. And the reason why we were given that is because not only are we willing to unite together, but we are a forward-looking people. We care about the future. We see the future,” Kennedy said.
As part of the program and through an initiative called “uFly,” Utah will lead a collaboration between Oregon, Idaho, Arizona and Oklahoma — along with industry partners and research institutions — to test new aviation technology and gather data that will inform the future of electric flight.
Partners with UDOT in the initiative include Beta Technologies, Ampaire, Joby Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Future Flight Global, Alpine Air, Jump Aero and Utah aerospace and defense company 47G.
Braceras emphasized not letting “perfect be our enemy” when it comes to the buildout of air mobility systems.
Kennedy echoed this feeling, saying overregulation could lead to “international adversaries like China” outpacing the U.S. when it comes to developing air mobility.
“That is not going to be good for our national security,” Kennedy warned.
The summit will conclude on Wednesday. A full lineup of speakers and events can be found here.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.
SALT LAKE CITY — Utahns can never be described as “basic,” but that quality is at the root of the most troublesome word for state residents to spell.
Basically… it’s basically.
According to Unscramblerer.com, the word “basically” is the one that trips up Utahns the most. Not mischievous, acquiesce, onomatopoeia or… yes… bougie. (Actually, bougie was the most misspelled word in all of America.)
To find the most difficult words for each state’s residents to pronounce, the site used Google Trends and Ahrefs.
List of America’s Most Misspellled Words:
- Bougie
- Favorite
- Through
- Business
- Tomorrow
- Because
- Definitely
- Beautiful
- Niece
- Separate
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