Utah
Utah State knocks off No. 19 San Diego State
There was no storming of the court this time after the Aggies knocked off a ranked opponent at the Spectrum. But make no mistake, Tuesday night’s 68-63 win over 19th-ranked San Diego State was absolutely worthy of a celebration.
“I know we’re not getting ice cream, but they should just give everybody ice cream anyway after this one,” proclaimed USU head coach Danny Sprinkle, referencing the Culver’s promotion that rewards Aggie fans anytime their team scores 80 or more points.
“I’m obviously super proud of our team the way they responded against a team that was the national runner-up last year, with a lot of players back.”
The Aggies (22-5, 10-4), who were tied for first place in the Mountain West with the Aztecs (20-7, 9-5) coming into the game, had a woeful performance at Colorado State last Saturday. Utah State lost to the Rams by 20 points in Fort Collins after beating then-13th ranked CSU at the Spectrum on Jan. 6.
Utah State looked like a very different, much more determined team on Tuesday while taking over sole possession for first place and becoming just the third Aggie team ever to beat two or more ranked opponents in the same season. The 1959-60 team beat three teams in the AP Top 25, while the 2006-07 squad beat two ranked opponents.
“I think a lot of times people hit the panic button on us when things go bad,” noted graduate senior guard Darius Brown II. “But we knew this whole week that if we defended, rebounded and limiting their second-chance points that we’d be fine.
“I know this team. I know we’re fighters. And I knew we’d fine.”
Brown certainly backed up that confidence by leading all scorers with 25 points in 39 minutes in a winning effort. The Southern California native went 8 of 13 from the field, including 5 of 9 from 3-point range, and delivered some of the biggest plays of the game for the Aggies.
“Darius is from Pasadena, right up the road from San Diego State, and watched them growing up,” Sprinkle noted. “I’m really proud of his effort, and all the guys. I told them before the game that this was a chance to show how great they are. ‘This is why you came to play in the Mountain West, on national TV against a national runner-up. Go show who you are.’ And they did.”
The Aggies, who lost at San Diego State, 81-67, on Feb. 3, also got 17 points from Brown’s former Montana State teammate, Great Osobor. The junior forward scored 13 of those points in the second half, while also adding seven rebounds and seven assists.
Sprinkle definitely enjoyed watching his leading scorer go toe-to-toe in the paint with SDSU’s top scorer Jameson LeDee, who led the Aztecs with 23 points on 8 of 13 shooting.
“That was like two big hogs, just literally mud wrestling the entire game,” Sprinkle said of the Osobor vs. LeDee matchup. “I mean, those are two of the best bigs in the country going at it for 40 minutes on offense and defense, and it was fun to watch.”
Utah State, which also got 10 points from freshman guard Mason Falslev, ended up shooting 49% as a team for the game, including a 7-for-22 effort from 3-point range.
San Diego State won the rebounding battle, 34-31, and the Aztecs shot 42.9% for the game. But a 3-of-19 performance from beyond the arc certainly hurt their chances of sweeping the season series from the Aggies.
“Darius Brown was sensational. 8 for 13, 5 for 9 from 3, 4 for 4 from the foul line. He played sensational,” SDSU head coach Brian Dutcher said. “And (Great) Osobor does what he does. Solid game. Two-for-two at half. We were doubling when he was passing it out, did a good job moving the ball. But we didn’t make enough timely plays.
“As uninspired as we looked like we played at times, we just couldn’t get over the hump.”
Utah State opened the game with a confidence-building 6-0 burst as the Aztecs missed their first six shot attempts and didn’t notch their first field goal until nearly four minutes into the contest. San Diego State rebounded to lead by as many as three points midway through the first half, but the Aggies closed out the half with an 8-1 run that left the hosts up 31-26 at halftime.
Brown, who scored the final bucket of the first half, then opened the second half with a 3-pointer that ended up as a five-point play for the Aggies when Isaac Johnson turned a SDSU foul into a layup that left USU suddenly up by 10 points.
“That was huge,” Sprinkle said of the 5-0 second-half start. “And that was due to an effort play by Fish (Johnson), who was tackled when going to the offensive glass.
“We always talk about winning the last four minutes of the first half, and the first four minutes of the second half because a lot of teams lose games in those eight minutes of a game.”
San Diego State eventually ended up trimming USU’s lead down to just one point at 59-58 with just over five minutes left, but an offensive putback by Johnson helped steady the ship and the Aggies ended up never trailing in the second half.
The biggest shot of the game was delivered by Brown with two minutes left. Working down low, Osobor had his shot attempt come up short, but Falslev flew into the paint to tip the rebound out to Brown on the perimeter.
“Shout out to Mason for crashing. We were talking about rebounding and Mason came in and crashed and got a tip. I happened to be right in the area and it landed right to me,” Brown recalled. “I saw the shot clock was close to two seconds, so I knew I just had to put the shot up. Luckily when Mason tipped it, I caught it in perfect rhythm.”
Brown knocked down the 3-pointer to stake the Aggies to a 64-58 lead that forced Dutcher into using a timeout.
The crowd of 9,233 then weathered a couple of tense minutes that included Osobor blocking away a key shot attempt by LeDee and two clutch free throws by Falslev that all but secured the victory for the Aggies, who now control their own destiny with four games left to play. Utah State has this weekend off before returning to action Feb. 27 at Fresno State.
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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