Utah News

In the spring, summer and fall, travelers flock to Utah’s Canyon Country for the rich red canyons, arches and bulbous rock formations found in the area’s two national parks, national monuments, state parks and recreation areas. However, few make it to this area in the winter, missing out on a unique outdoor getaway.

“If you’re looking for solitude, winter can be a great time to visit,” says Allison Yamamoto-Sparks, visitors services manager for San Juan County Economic Development and Visitor Services.If that wasn’t enough, visitors also receive better prices on tours and stays in Moab, the main city in Canyon Country.

“Lodging and guided activities often have discounted rates during the winter, and if you’re lucky you might even get to see some of our beautiful parks and red rock landscapes covered in a dusting of snow,” Yamamoto-Sparks says.

GETTING THERE

Canyonlands Regional Airport has daily direct flights from Phoenix and Denver on Contour Airlines, which partners with American Airlines and United Airlines. Otherwise, you can fly into Grand Junction, Colorado, or Salt Lake City and drive 112 miles or 234 miles, respectively, to Moab.

HIKE, BIKE OR SKI

Hiking is one of the most popular activities in the region, thanks to a network of hundreds of trails. “You can usually hike year-round in the lower elevations of the desert since it doesn’t get snow often,” Yamamoto-Sparks says.

It’s not all bad injury news for the Kansas State football team.

Head coach Chris Klieman expects Jerand Bradley to be healthy enough to play for the Wildcats when they head to Utah for their final Big 12 road game of the season Saturday at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

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That is a welcome development for the K-State offense. At this point in the season, the Wildcats need every healthy playmaker they have on the roster.

Klieman said Bradley’s return will “help a bunch.”

Bradley, a 6-foot-5 and 223-pound senior, has made 13 catches for 184 yards and two touchdowns this season. But he has only seen limited action. Bradley has missed four games because of injuries, including a 14-6 victory over Oklahoma State on Saturday.

There is a good chance he will be more involved than usual against Utah, as K-State recently lost top wide receiver Jayce Brown to a season-ending injury. K-State quarterback Avery Johnson will look to get the ball to Jaron Tibbs and Bradley on the perimeter.

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“Getting Jerand back will help us kind of stay the course there,” Klieman said, “after we lose a really explosive player like Jayce. We will lose him as an explosive player and there aren’t going to be probably as many explosive plays without Jayce. But hopefully we still have a really efficient wide receiver group.”

Brown ended the season with a team-high 41 catches for 712 yards and five touchdowns.

His injury was the latest in a string of unfortunate events for the Wildcats, who have also been playing without their leading tackler (Austin Romaine) and their best pass-rusher (Tobi Osunsanmi). Their top running back (Dylan Edwards) also left the team earlier this month.

SPOKANE (AP) — Braden Huff scored 22 points on 11-for-13 shooting and Davis Fogle had a career-high 19 points as No. 13 Gonzaga beat Southern Utah 122-50 on Monday night.

Mario Saint-Supery added 16 points, seven assists and six steals in his first career start for the Bulldogs (5-0), who secured the second-largest scoring output and margin of victory in program history. Graham Ike and Adam Miller had 13 points apiece for Gonzaga.

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Elijah Duval scored 10 points to lead Southern Utah (1-4) as it fell to its worst start under third-year coach Rob Jeter. The Thunderbirds struggled offensively all night, finishing with more turnovers (23) than made field goals (18).

Gonzaga jumped out to a 17-2 lead behind smothering defense and transition scoring. One early sequence began with Ike blocking a layup attempt from Zach Bell, nearly pinning the ball against the backboard. It ended with Adam Miller hoisting a lob to Tyon Grant-Foster for a two-handed finish.

NO. 16 IOWA STATE 96, STONEHILL 57

AMES, Iowa (AP) — Joshua Jefferson and Tamin Lipsey scored 23 points apiece and Iowa State pulled away late in the first half of a win over Stonehill.

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Jefferson added nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals in a terrific all-around performance that helped the Cyclones (4-0) to another lopsided victory. Their average winning margin is 33.3 points per game.

Iowa State missed all seven of its 3-point attempts in the first half but went 5 of 8 to start the second and put away the game. The Cyclones reeled off a 15-0 run and held Stonehill to one field goal over eight minutes spanning halftime. Back-to-back 3s by Killyan Toure and Jefferson made it 48-27, and it was a 30-point game when Jamarion Batemon hit a 3 midway through the second half.

Milan Momcilovic scored 16 points for Iowa State, and Lipsey added six rebounds, four assists and two steals.

NO. 20 TENNESSEE 91, RICE 66

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KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Felix Okpara had 20 points and eight rebounds, Nate Ament added 19 points and 10 boards, and Tennessee cruised to a victory over Rice despite an injury to forward J.P. Estrella.

The 6-foot-11 redshirt sophomore went down in a scrum of bodies in the first half and appeared to hurt his left knee.

Estrella entered averaging 17.3 points and 8.7 rebounds per game this season. He missed most of last season with a foot injury.

Ja’Kobi Gillespie finished with 17 points and eight assists for the Volunteers (4-0). Ethan Berg scored 11.

Nick Anderson led the Owls (2-3) with 19 points. Cam Carroll scored 14 and Jalen Smith had 10.

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Gillespie had 10 points at halftime to lead the Vols to a 39-26 advantage.

NO. 24 WISCONSIN 94, SIU EDWARDSVILLE 69

MADISON, Wisc. (AP) — John Blackwell scored 24 points, Nick Boyd added 22 and Wisconsin closed a four-game, season-opening homestand by defeating SIU Edwardsville.

Wisconsin has scored at least 85 points in each of its first four games for the first time since the 1975-76 season. Blackwell and Boyd led the way, with Blackwell going 5 of 6 on 3-point attempts and Boyd making 4 of 7.

Wisconsin plays its next three games away from Kohl Center as its schedule gets tougher. The Badgers have started 4-0 for the second straight year and the third time in four seasons.

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Austin Rapp scored seven of his 15 points during a 16-0 run early in the second half that broke open a close game. Rapp also had eight rebounds to match Nolan Winter for the team lead.

Wisconsin committed just four turnovers.

NO. 25 NC STATE 85, VCU 79

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Darrion Williams scored 28 points, Tre Holloman added 25 and North Carolina State marked its first appearance in the national rankings this season by beating VCU.

Matt Able had 12 points off the bench and Ven-Allen Lubin provided 11 points and nine rebounds for the Wolfpack (4-0), who overcame 17 turnovers.

Holloman made six free throws in the final 18 seconds to help N.C. State win its first November game in the Top 25 in 13 years.

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Barry Evans had 18 points and Jadrian Tracey scored 16, including four 3-pointers, for the Rams (2-2). Lazar Djokovic finished with 13.

N.C. State coach Will Wade spent two seasons (2015-17) as VCU’s coach, and his former team refused to fade away.

The Wolfpack are 4-0 for the fourth consecutive season after winning for the 70th time in their last 74 nonconference home games.

SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — Braden Huff scored 22 points on 11-for-13 shooting and Davis Fogle had a career-high 19 points as No. 13 Gonzaga beat Southern Utah 122-50 on Monday night.

Mario Saint-Supery added 16 points, seven assists and six steals in his first career start for the Bulldogs (5-0), who secured the second-largest scoring output and margin of victory in program history. Graham Ike and Adam Miller had 13 points apiece for Gonzaga.

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Elijah Duval scored 10 points to lead Southern Utah (1-4) as it fell to its worst start under third-year coach Rob Jeter. The Thunderbirds struggled offensively all night, finishing with more turnovers (23) than made field goals (18).

Gonzaga jumped out to a 17-2 lead behind smothering defense and transition scoring. One early sequence began with Ike blocking a layup attempt from Zach Bell, nearly pinning the ball against the backboard. It ended with Adam Miller hoisting a lob to Tyon Grant-Foster for a two-handed finish.

On another wild fastbreak run, Mario Saint-Supery intercepted a pass in the backcourt and threw a lob to Grant-Foster, who missed the dunk, but Miller cleaned it up with a tip-in to make it 36-14.

As the half was winding down, Saint-Supery poked the ball away from Duval for his fifth steal. It set up a layup from Grant-Foster on the other end as Gonzaga went into halftime with a 59–27 lead.

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Meanwhile, the Thunderbirds struggled to handle Gonzaga’s ball pressure, finishing the half with 14 turnovers and 10 made field goals.

Miller scored Gonzaga’s first bucket of the second half on a transition 3 from the top of the key, and the Bulldogs kept rolling from there. Huff continued the surge by scoring 10 points in the next five minutes to push the lead to 79-37, one which Gonzaga never relinquished.

Up next

Southern Utah: At Washington State on Wednesday.

Gonzaga: Faces Alabama in Las Vegas on Monday.

___

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here and here (AP News mobile app). AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball

Democrats in Utah are abuzz this week after a judge adopted a map for the 2026 congressional elections that creates a district that leans their way for the first time in decades.

This new district, built around the northern portion of Salt Lake County, does indeed include the bluest portions of a red state. And depending on which elections from the past decade are included in the analysis, it favors Democrats by somewhere between 13 points and 17 points.

But there have actually been several electoral anomalies in Utah over that span, so it’s best to look at a range, rather than a precise number.

Consider the gubernatorial election last year. If we just approach it as Republican Spencer Cox vs. Democrat Brian King, then King got 11.5 percent more of the vote than Cox inside the new district. But remember the race also had former Rep. Phil Lyman running a write-in campaign. Ten percent of voters in that election cast a ballot for someone other than Cox or King, most of them for Cox’s challenger from the right — Lyman.

So that either counts as an 11.5 percentage point victory for the Democrat or something closer to 1.5 percentage points, considering.

Next, let’s look at the President Donald Trump factor.

Trump has been on the presidential ballot three times in Utah in the last decade — 2024, 2020 and 2016. By Republican standards in Utah, he did poorly, losing the district by between 21 and 24 percentage points.

He never cracked 60% statewide. That’s historically bad for a Republican in Utah. In races without a significant third-party candidate, Trump’s 2024 and 2020 performances were the worst for a Republican presidential candidate since Barry Goldwater lost to Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

And looking at races where there was a major third-party candidate on Utahns’ ballot — Evan McMullin in 2016, H. Ross Perot twice in the 1990s, and segregationist Gov. George Wallace in 1968 — the only GOP showing that compares to Trump’s 46% in 2016 is George H.W. Bush’s 43% the first time Perot ran in 1992.

Those races change the perceived lean in a big and questionable way.

Speaking of McMullin, he also is responsible for another strange Utah election that complicates the math. In 2022, Democrats opted not to nominate a candidate to run against U.S. Sen. Mike Lee, instead tossing their support behind McMullin.

The independent dominated in precincts that now make up the new congressional district, beating Lee by nearly 32 percentage points. But how many of those are actual Democrats? It’s hard to tell.

In the congressional races that same election, Democratic candidates received 52% of the vote, while McMullin got 57% — meaning there was crossover, but it wasn’t massive.

There is one more flukey election in 2016.

That year, in the race for attorney general, the Democratic candidate dropped out before Election Day, and Republican Sean Reyes won the area now part of the new district by just over two percentage points — the only Republican in a decade to do so. But how do we consider the results in a race without a real opponent?

Based on Salt Lake County results from 2024, eight out of 10 of the “other” votes cast in the gubernatorial election were write-ins, presumably for Phil Lyman. Those are votes cast by people who thought Cox was not conservative enough, meaning they aren’t likely to vote for a Democrat in 2026. Considering that, lowering King’s 11.5 percentage point win by those eight points results in a 3.5 percentage point win for Democrats.

Along those lines, based on the larger county-wide voting patterns, reducing McMullin’s victory in those precincts by 5 percentage points to about 27 points — which falls roughly in line with Trump’s losses.

Making those two adjustments, and keeping the 2016 attorney general race, results in a Democratic advantage is 12.4 percentage points.

If you leave the Cox defeat and the McMullin win in the district unadjusted and only go back as far as the 2018 elections, a Democrat has a 17-point advantage.

That is not a cakewalk. Republicans have had similar advantages in districts and lost. Still, it is considerable and the kind of daylight that Utah Democrats have not seen in decades.

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Are the Utah Jazz making a play-in push? I don’t know, maybe, but in emotional and exciting battles like this one against the Chicago Bulls, it’s hard not to smile as Utah shreds its own lottery ticket.

Defense? Never heard of her. How strange is it that we live in a world where basketball teams regularly stretch near 100 points before the end of the 3rd quarter? Without a defensive anchor, Walker Kessler, roaming the hardwood plains, the Utah Jazz hemorrhaged points against the Chicago Bulls, while piling a second, third, and even fourth helping of points onto their scoring total with no regard for their belt, the limits of the scoreboard, or their viewers’ ability to stomach such indulgent quantities.

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Complaining about the lack of defense in today’s league makes me feel like an old man, and I haven’t even eclipsed a quarter of a century. Yuck. Though I suppose, in a double-overtime epic like this one, who cares about point totals?

The post-Jordan era Chicago Bulls have been one of basketball’s greatest enigmas in the sport’s professional history. No championships, a smattering of mediocrity, and team after team that promises glory while garnishing a hollow trophy case since the year 2000 (with respect to the ne’er-to-be-forgotten Derrick Rose MVP season, of course).

Perhaps we can chalk this up to a John Stockton-Karl Malone curse? The Utah Jazz have reached the NBA Finals just twice in franchise history, in back-to-back seasons as the MJ buzzsaw sliced through one of the most potent basketball duos the game has ever seen.

With all this in mind, please forgive me if I’m a bit skeptical of this season’s apparent success for the Chicago Bulls. They began the year with an incredible 6-1 record behind tremendous play by Josh Giddey and Nikola Vucevic, as the team officially shed the chains of the DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine era of, well, mediocrity in the Windy City. The Sacramento Bulls thank you for your donation.

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But since that sixth win, the Bulls have lost four straight to teams with winning records. This meeting against the red-hot combo of Markkanen and Bailey (how I’ve longed to say that) promises a change for the faltering Bulls, however, as point guard Coby White (owner of the greatest hair in the league) is set to make his season debut after nursing a calf injury.

Correcting course and setting sail for familiar territory in the draft lottery, Utah’s front office has to understand that games against Chicago are not for the Jazz to be winning, no matter how capable the team may be. In all honesty, this team at full strength may very well be play-in caliber with the surging production of Keyonte George, Lauri Markkanen, and Ace Bailey.

But let us remember, with an eye on the horrific records dwelling near the bottom of the standings, Utah cannot afford to miss out on this apparently stacked draft class.

Judges, today the Utah Jazz have baked a tanking tart, complete with a smattering of ghostly defense, plenty of minutes in the oven for rising star Svi Mykhailiuk, and a raspberry filling. Recalling the objective of this season, having seen enough of Cam Boozer, AJ Dybatnsa, and Darryn Peterson to understand that falling anywhere outside of the top three could be a crime punishable by death.

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…But sometimes winning is just so much fun. More on that in a minute.

Ace Bailey has finally been put into the starting lineup and is kicking all kinds of butt on his way… that is, until foul trouble threw off his groove, and saw him spending most of the night’s game with his butt planted firmly on the bench.

In the previous two games, Bailey’s stat sheet read as follows:

vs Indiana: 20 pts, 4 reb, 1 ast, 53.8% FG, 50% 3PT
vs Atlanta: 21 pts, 5 reb, 3 ast, 2 stl, 61.5% FG, 57.1 3PT

Against Chicago, Bailey’s six fouls in 10 minutes stifled his production:

vs Chicago: 5 pts, 1 reb, 1 blk, 40% FG, 33% 3PT

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Despite the poor overall showing today, Ace’s recent production has Utah finally buzzing about star potential.

Speaking of star potential, I’d like to say a quick word about one Keyonte George, who turned a slow start (5 points in the first half) into one of the primary reasons why this team remained competitive throughout this contest, as he finished with 34 points, 6 dimes, and 4 steals, including repeated buckets in clutch moments. His ability to draw fouls and hit free throws (shooting over 92% on the year) has completely expanded the limits of his production. A leader on the team, having matured both mentally and physically, Keyonte George’s leap in year 3 has been revelatory.

Related story: Keyonte George’s transformation goes deeper than you think

And by primary reasons, I mean non-Lauri Markkanen reasons, as the Finnisher lathered layer after layer of paint coats onto his stable and steady Delta Center home. Lauri, already averaging over 30 a night, stuffed the points column with 47 points all his own. Unreal. Down the stretch, he was a guaranteed basket. Collecting fouls, knocking through pick-and-pop jumpers, and reliably finding the next gear to answer every Chicago punch. Truthfully, it will take a severe fall from grace for Lauri to whiff on the All-Star game this season, right?

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The Utah Jazz have an undeniable star in their midst. Whether you’re in camp ‘Trade Lauri’ or camp ‘Keep Lauri’, his value as an asset may be at an all-time high — we are witnessing his prime.

Brice Sensabaugh, buddy, welcome back to the show. After a quiet first half, Sensabaugh ignited an explosion of production, whipping absurd passes to open teammates and torching the nylon on the other end for his own stat line. On defense, his effort was undeniable — he was everywhere, whether that reflected in production or not. This is why he was on the floor in OT — he’s earning Will Hardy’s trust.

Even Isaiah Collier enjoyed a strong night, tallying 17 points and 7 assists on excellent efficiency and sharing the floor well with Keyonte. Unfortunately, Collier’s reliability came at the expense of minutes for Walter Clayton Jr, though the decision to run with the second-year USC product is an understandable one.

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The fourth quarter was as cinematic as the script-writers could have drafted it, with this game seeing so many lead changes that ESPN’s win probability chart in the late game read exactly like my heartbeat; my eyes firmly glued to the screen. Everybody shut up — I’m watching the Jazz.

Do you know what’s even better than four quarters of basketball? May I introduce you to my dear friend, overtime? Keyonte’s fallaway jumper missed everything as time expired, and overtime began.

Keyonte George, Lauri Markkanen, and Brice Sensabaugh became the super friends in the final period. George splashed stepback threes. Sensabaugh rattled a contested elbow jumper through the cylinder. Markkanen, in defiance of Isaac Newton’s life’s work, snuck a heavily contested mid-range flip shot through the rim while fully parallel to the Earth.

The final seconds of OT drained like oatmeal. Moments turned to minutes, and minutes physically aged me by years at a time. With Utah up two points, Coby White — head on a swivel — forced a jump ball and the Bulls converted a layup on the other end.

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The second OT started out all Utah. The Bulls were caught with foul after foul, and the Jazz bought a timeshare at the foul stripe. Markkanen and George converted the charity shots at a high rate, and points were tallied without the passage of time. Chicago kept itself within an arm’s reach, and a Coby White pump-fake-jump-forward shot with his foot on the line opened the door for White to sink his 13th and 14th free throws and knot the score, 147-147.

With seconds on the clock, curling around a screen on the right wing, Keyonte caught a laser in rhythm, and his catch-and-shoot sledgehammer snapped through the net to drive the final nail into Chicago’s coffin. Keyonte George drilled his 34th point in the evening’s climax.

Keyonte would not miss his second chance to seal the win. His release was pure, the result even more so. Ball game.

Calvin Barrett is a writer, editor, and prolific Mario Kart racer located in Tokyo, Japan. He has covered the NBA and College Sports since 2024.

SALT LAKE CITY — Keyonte George made a 3-pointer with 2 seconds remaining in the second overtime, Lauri Markkanen scored 47 points and the Utah Jazz beat the Chicago Bulls 150-147 on Sunday night in the NBA’s highest-scoring game of the season.

George finished with 32 points — including six in the second OT. Isaiah Collier and Brice Sensabaugh each had 16 points, and Kevin Love and Svi Mykhailuk each added 10 as the Jazz won for the second time in three games after losing six of seven.

Coby White scored 27 points and Josh Giddey had 26 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists for the Bulls, who have lost five straight. Nikola Vučević had 21 points, Matas Buzelis and Ayo Dosunmu each scored 18 and Julian Phillips scored 10.

White, whose layup with 0.2 seconds left in the first OT tied the score at 136, made two free throws with 8.4 seconds to go in the second OT to tie it at 147. After George’s go-ahead 3, Vučević missed a potential tying basket at the buzzer.

Utah led 136-132 in the final minute of the first OT, before Buzelis had a dunk with 27 seconds to go and White made his tying layup to send it to a second OT.

The Jazz trailed by seven early in the fourth quarter before using an 8-0 run to take a 102-101 lead on Sensabaugh’s 3 with 9:23 remaining. Collier followed with a layup to push the lead to three less than 30 seconds later.

Jalen Smith’s 3 tied the score with 8:41 to go, and there were several lead changes and seven ties the rest of the quarter. Markkanen, who had 12 points in the fourth, hit a free throw with 19 seconds remaining to tie it at 127.

Markkanen had 13 points in the third quarter to help Utah cut Chicago’s nine-point halftime lead to 98-94 heading to the fourth.

Giddey and White each scored 12 points to help the Bulls take a 70-61 lead at halftime. Markkanen had 18 points to lead the Jazz.