Utah
How No. 18 Utah State held off Fresno State in the MWC tournament quarterfinals
LAS VEGAS â Survive and advance â thatâs what happened for No. 18 Utah State on Thursday.
The top-seeded Aggies received a scare from No. 9 seed Fresno State in the quarterfinals of the Mountain West Conference tournament at the Thomas & Mack Center, but Utah State finally took control in overtime of the 87-75 victory.
âWe just knew we had to go take it in overtime. We were just prepared. As soon as we seen it was going to OT, we thought, yeah, weâre fitting to take this and dominate.â
â Â Utah State’s Javon Jackson
âWhen we had to get it done, just like we found ways all year, they kept finding ways to get it done,â Utah State coach Danny Sprinkle said of his team.
The game featured seven runs of seven or more points â âAny time we would get up by eight, they kept scrapping back,â Sprinkle said â but it was the final one, this time by the Aggies, that sealed the win.
Javon Jackson, who scored a career-high 16 points, hit a 3-pointer just 16 seconds into overtime to give the Aggies the early advantage. On Utah Stateâs next possession, Great Osobor hit a jumper.
That set the tone for the extra session, as Utah State (27-5) scored the first 11 points before Fresno State was able to hit a pair of too-late shots in the final minute.
âWe just knew we had to go take it in overtime. We were just prepared. As soon as we seen it was going to OT, we thought, yeah, weâre fitting to take this and dominate,â Jackson said.
Jackson, who turned 22 on Thursday, also had five rebounds, three steals and two assists.
âWe donât even come close to winning that game without Javon,â Sprinkle said.
Osobor, as heâs been all season, was a force all afternoon for the Aggies.
The 6-foot-8 wing, who was named both the MWC Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, created foul issues for the Bulldogs while making 15 of 24 free throws. He finished with 29 points â Osobor also made 7 of 8 field goals â and added 17 rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Jackson scored eight of his 16 points before halftime, helping Utah State overcome some early struggles. Fresno State led by as many as seven points in the first half as the Aggies missed 11 of 12 field goals at one point, helping the Bulldogs establish some momentum.
It ended up being the final game for Fresno State coach Justin Hutson, who announced following the game that he is stepping down as the Bulldogsâ head coach on his own terms. Fresno State had advanced to Thursdayâs quarterfinals after rallying past Wyoming in Wednesdayâs first round.
In a game full of spurts, though, Utah State closed to within one point at halftime and then scored 11 of the first 13 points in the second half to establish control.
âI felt like our aggressiveness, especially in the second half, was much better. We got some open looks in the first half. We just didnât knock them down,â Sprinkle said. âThe first 20 minutes of any tournament is the hardest. They had been on the court. Theyâve played. They were in a lot more rhythm, and you could tell that in the first half.â
While 3-point shooting was a struggle much of the day â the Aggies made 7 of 25 and missed their first seven â Utah State benefited from some timely 3-pointers.
That included a pair from Isaac Johnson and one from Darius Brown II in the opening minutes of the second half to help the Aggies push their lead as high as nine at 54-45.
Brown later made two more 3-pointers, along with Jackson hitting another, and with 4:45 to play, the Aggies led 80-72.
Fresno State, though, wouldnât go away.
Instead, the Bulldogs outscored Utah State 8-0 over the final 4:45 of regulation to force overtime.
Jalen Weaver, who led the Bulldogs with 19 points and eight rebounds, started that run with a layup, and Isaiah Hill â who had 17 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists for the Bulldogs â made a pair of layups 36 seconds apart in the final two minutes to tie the game at 80.
Hill then had a chance to put Fresno State ahead, but his 3-point attempt with 40 seconds left missed, giving the ball back to Utah State.
Brown, who shook off a slow shooting start to finish with a double-double on 17 points and 11 assists, then tried a 3 with eight seconds remaining in regulation, but it missed, too, sending the game into overtime.
Thatâs where Utah Stateâs toughness and experience took over.
âI feel like obviously you donât want to have close games, but we like when the stakes are high. So we knew if we got into overtime, it was a 0-0 game. We got our jitters out of the way,â Osobor said. âTheyâre a really good team, and they played yesterday, so they had momentum going. At that point, OK, we had already played a full game now. 0-0. Go do what we do, you know.â
In a game where both teams shot just over 40% from the field, free throws ended up playing a huge role, as Utah State attempted 22 more than Fresno State. The Aggies made 26 of 36, while the Bulldogs made 11 of 14.
Osobor himself shot 10 more free throws than Fresno State.
Sprinkle said the Aggies could clean it up, as they missed chances on several occasions to bolster their lead when a one-and-one was missed.
âThatâs our game plan every game. Thatâs just the style that we play, and our players, thatâs kind of what weâre built for, being aggressive and really trying to attack the paint to either draw fouls or get the ball to the rim and let guys play one-on-one,â Sprinkle said.
The Aggies were surprisingly shorthanded in the quarterfinal matchup, as freshman Mason Falslev was in street clothes with an injury.
Sprinkle met with Falslev following the teamâs pregame meal, and thatâs when the coach said he indicated he couldnât go.
âHe hasnât really practiced much all week. Itâs just kind of one of those, weâll see how he feels tomorrow,â Sprinkle said of Falslev. âHeâs been getting a lot of treatment on it, but I donât expect him to play tomorrow, to be honest. I hope he does, but â¦â
The tomorrow in reference is Utah Stateâs MWC tournament semifinal matchup.
The Aggies will face either UNLV or San Diego State on Friday in the first semifinal of the day (7:30 p.m. MST, CBS Sports Network).
After Thursdayâs battle, Utah State is happy to be playing another day.
âItâs the Mountain West, thereâs no teams in the Mountain West that weâre going to come in and win,â Osobor said. âItâs high-level basketball. We tend to thrive in close games. Iâm glad â Iâm happy for our teamâs resiliency and the way that we stick together in close games.â
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah football’s first official visit weekend of the 2027 recruiting cycle has already produced a payoff, as Morgan Scalley has landed the commitment of three-star offensive lineman Sire Stewart.
Stewart, a 6-foot-5, 255-pound offensive tackle out of Chandler High School in Arizona, became one of the key names to watch coming into the weekend.
Utah hosted several offensive line targets as part of its first official visit group, and Stewart leaving Salt Lake City committed gives the Utes a tangible recruiting win at a priority position.
A Fast Win For Utah’s New Recruiting Operation
Utah’s first official visit weekend under Scalley was always going to be about more than hosting prospects. It was the first major chance for the new regime to show recruits and families what the program looks like with Scalley as head coach and D’Orazio helping guide the roster-building operation.
Stewart’s commitment gives Utah an early return from that effort.
The Utes need momentum in the 2027 class, and official visit weekends are where that momentum often starts. Landing an offensive lineman from Arizona also reinforces one of Utah’s most important recruiting priorities: continuing to build regionally while identifying prospects who fit the program’s developmental model.
Stewart had official visits scheduled to Washington State and Boise State but elected to give his pledge to the Utes instead.
Utah Got In Early
Utah’s pursuit of Stewart did not begin this weekend. Offensive line coach Jordan Gross offered Stewart in early February, with the Utes becoming his 10th offer and third Power Four opportunity behind Duke and Arizona. Since then, Stewart has added offers from Oklahoma State, Baylor and Cal, while also making an unofficial visit to Arizona State.
Utah was not late to the evaluation. The Utes identified Stewart early, prioritized him and then got him on campus for the first official visit weekend of the cycle. In modern recruiting, that kind of early relationship-building is important.
Gross may be new to college coaching, but this is a good first recruiting win. He gives Utah a unique offensive line pitch. He played at Utah, became one of the program’s best examples of development translating to the NFL, and now gets to sell that same path to recruits. For a prospect like Stewart, Utah can offer both a developmental plan and a real example of what that plan can become.
Building The Class Up Front
Stewart’s commitment also continues a clear early theme for Utah. The Utes are prioritizing the trenches, particularly from the high school ranks.
Utah has long built its program around line-of-scrimmage play, and that identity is not expected to change under Scalley. If anything, it appears to be one of the first pieces of the roster construction plan being emphasized in the 2027 class.
Stewart gives Utah a developmental offensive line prospect with the frame to grow into a Big 12 lineman. Listed by 247Sports at 6-foot-5 and 255 pounds, he still has room to add strength and mass, but the foundation is there.
This commitment gives Utah momentum, but particularly with the offensive linemen they’re in pursuit of. Utah will continue to push for fellow offensive linemen Lincoln Mageo, Ian Aloisio, Tye Kennedy, Damian Anyasodo, Gecova Doyal, and Amaziah Siale.
Mageo and Doyal were also part of the visit with Stewart, giving Utah an added presence to recruit those two. Kennedy and Anyasodo will officially visit the Salt Lake City this weeend, while Siale has been a big priority for Utah and will visit at the end of the month.
The Bottom Line
Sire Stewart’s commitment is not just another name on Utah’s 2027 board. It is the first real proof point from the Utes’ opening official visit weekend under Scalley.
Utah identified him early, got him to campus and closed. That is what good recruiting operations are supposed to do.
For Stewart, the commitment gives him a clear developmental home in a program that has long valued offensive line play. For Utah, it adds another piece to a 2027 class that needs to reflect the new regime’s roster-building vision.
The Utes have always believed in winning up front. Stewart’s commitment shows that message is still central to how Utah plans to build.
Steve Bartle is the Utah insider for KSL Sports. He hosts The Utah Blockcast (SUBSCRIBE) and appears on KSL Sports Zone to break down the Utes. You can follow him on X for the latest Utah updates and game analysis.
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SALT LAKE CITY — Lucas Horns points over a fence on Main Street toward an empty lot with a blue shipping container on it, tucked between downtown Salt Lake City’s tallest buildings.
That container, he explains, will serve as a makeshift bar on Thursdays and Fridays through the remainder of summer, set up next to a live music stage and a space that will be dedicated to various lawn games for people of all ages. The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art will provide some art as part of an outdoor sculpture and food and drink venue combination aimed to liven up an otherwise dead space.
“Our hope is just to add to the ecosystem,” said Horns, program director for the Blocks, a joint venture between Salt Lake City and Salt Lake County to develop arts and culture programs within the downtown area.
The Blocks is launching what it calls the “Art Garten” in the lot of the old Utah Pantages Theater, 144 S. Main, beginning this week. It’s a free event that blends a beer garden with live music, art and games for all ages.
A DJ will be spinning hits from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Thursday, while live music from the steps of the Eccles Theater across the street will fill the air during the same hours on Friday. A rotating list of DJs and live bands will fill in the space during the same hours twice a week for the next few months.
The event will include a rotating food truck lineup, along with cornhole, giant chess and other lawn games for people of all ages. The Blocks didn’t want to compete with bars and restaurants, so the hours hit around happy hour, while also being friendly for people with families, Horns said.
“We were interested in adding something new to downtown,” he told KSL. “There aren’t a lot of spaces where families can go, and the parents can grab a beer and hang out while their kids play lawn games. That’s kind of a rarity in Utah, and especially downtown, so I think we’re filling an important niche.”
At the same time, it livens up a piece of Main Street that’s been lifeless for years.
The Utah Pantages Theater was demolished in 2022, amid a last-second effort to preserve the century-old building. Salt Lake leaders approved a $0 sale of the building to international real estate firm Hines and local developer Joel LaSalle in 2019, setting the stage for a proposed 31-story residential high-rise on Main Street.
However, the project stalled with the market. “Unprecedented market changes,” such as record inflation, emerged at approximately the same time as the theater was demolished, making it difficult to secure financing for the project off the ground, a spokesperson for Hines told KSL in 2024.
The situation hasn’t changed much since then, leaving Main Street with a vacant lot blocked off by a large wooden board for years. Some of the lessons from “Open Streets” and other downtown activation events helped piece together an event to use the space while it remains vacant.
“We’re excited just to be able to do a pop-up park like that in that location on Main Street, with programming unlike anything else we’ve done on Main Street,” said Dee Brewer, director of the Salt Lake City Downtown Alliance. “I’m really excited to see how the public responds.”
Hines cleared the space for the event, which will continue on Thursdays and Fridays through the end of September. Horns and Brewer say they expect the venue to return next year and potentially longer, depending on how long the tower project remains on pause.
It may not be the perfect solution to a development holdup, but they believe it’s an upgrade from the current situation.
“A blank, empty wall is never good for walkability or for the urban environment,” Horns said.
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 — A law designed to prevent so-called “dumpster babies” is now 25 years old — and one of the individuals it was designed to save is now close to the same age.
Utah‘s Newborn Safe Haven law was designed to give pregnant moms a safe alternative where they could leave a baby they could not or would not be able to care for. The original sponsors of the bill say they don’t know how many children have been saved over the years, but one of them, Sam Peterson, was on hand to mark Monday’s special anniversary.
He said the law means everything to him.
“It is something that has given me my life! It’s my privilege to be a part of this law,” Sam said.
He stood next to his mother, Heather Peterson, who said she gets emotional talking about the law allowing her and her husband to adopt Sam.
“We feel like a miracle happened. We feel like you came to us in the most amazing way and you have an amazing story and we think it’s important that other people hear it,” she said.
Heather and Sam agreed that the Newborn Safe Haven allowed them to become a family.
It was a bill originally sponsored by former Utah Senator Patrice Arent a quarter century ago. Arent said she felt compelled to act after hearing too many stories about so-called “dumpster babies.”
“Babies that had been left to die in unsafe places like dumpsters or public toilets,” Arent explained, “Or even someone who left their baby in a drawer in their bedroom in Cottonwood Heights. I heard these stories and I just knew I had to try to find a way to provide a safe alternative.”
So Arent, a Democrat, worked with former Republican lawmaker John Valentine to sponsor and help pass Utah’s Newborn Safe Haven law.
Arent said it was a true bipartisan collaboration.
“It allows our birth parents to legally give up custody of an infant. It’s anonymous and it’s in a hospital. There will be no questions asked, and the baby then ends up in a safe, loving home,” she said.
Less than a year after the law went into effect, Sam’s birth mother left him at a Utah hospital. Heather said she and her husband adopted him three days later. Sam is now 24.
“We are living proof that Safe Haven works, because we didn’t know anything about his birth mom… It was like he just dropped out of heaven,” Heather said.
Sam said he is eternally grateful.
“It’s given me a family, it’s given me friends, it’s given me an opportunity to go to college. Day three, I was with my mom, and so she will always be my mother, and I will always cherish that,” he said.
Sam said he will be graduating next year from BYU with an engineering degree.
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