Month: March 2025

PROVO, Utah (AP) — Dawson Baker scored 15 points and Richie Saunders added 14 to lead No. 23 BYU to an 85-74 victory over rival Utah on Saturday night.

Keba Keita had 12 points and Egor Demin scored 10 for the Cougars (23-8, 14-6 Big 12), who won their eighth straight game. Both players had seven rebounds. Demin finished with six assists.

Miro Little led Utah with 21 points. Ezra Ausar added 12 points and 12 rebounds. The Utes (16-15, 8-12) have dropped four of their last five games.

For a third consecutive game, BYU weathered a sluggish start on offense in the first half. The Cougars started 0 of 13 from 3-point range before Baker and Mihailo Boskovic ended the drought with back-to-back outside baskets.

Utah took advantage of BYU’s prolonged shooting struggles. Ausar scored four baskets over a five-minute stretch to put the Utes up 26-21.

The Cougars rallied and took a 34-30 halftime lead on a buzzer-beating 3-pointer from Dallin Hall.

Utah trailed the entire second half, but BYU didn’t pull away until Trevin Knell and Hall fueled a 12-0 run with back-to-back baskets that helped put the Cougars up 66-49 with 6:46 left. The Utes missed nine straight shots during a five-minute scoring drought.

Takeaways

Utah: Committed 17 turnovers, leading to 21 points for BYU, and shot just 35% from the field.

BYU: Baker had his highest-scoring game since totaling 16 points at Providence in December.

Key moment

Baskets from Keita and Hall in the final 35 seconds of the first half put BYU ahead for good.

Key stat

BYU outscored Utah 40-22 in the paint.

Up next

Utah faces UCF in the first round of the Big 12 Tournament on Tuesday. BYU has a double bye into Thursday’s quarterfinal round.

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Saturday’s game at Marriott Center has the No. 23 BYU Cougars (22-8, 14-6 Big 12) taking on the Utah Utes (16-14, 8-12 Big 12) at 10 p.m. ET. Our computer prediction is a one-sided 80-69 victory, as our model heavily favors BYU. According to our computer prediction, Utah should cover the point spread, which is listed at 11.5. The two sides are projected to fall short of the 154.5 total.

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BYU vs. Utah Odds

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BYU vs. Utah Prediction

• Prediction: BYU 80, Utah 69

BYU Betting Info

• The Cougars’ record against the spread in conference play is 13-6-0.
• The Cougars have played 19 Big 12 games this year, and 11 of them have hit the over.
• The Cougars have won 16, or 72.7%, of the 22 games they’ve played as moneyline favorites this season.
• BYU has been at least a -787 moneyline favorite seven times this season and won all of those games.
• In 11 of 29 games this season, the Cougars and their opponents have scored more than 154.5 points.
• The average total in BYU’s contests this year is 151.2, 3.3 fewer points than this game’s over/under.

BYU’s Top Players

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Utah Betting Info

• The Utes have beaten the spread eight times in 19 Big 12 games.
• Out of 19 Utes Big 12 games so far this season, five have gone over the total.
• The Utes have been victorious in three, or 20%, of the 15 contests they have been chosen as underdogs in this season.
• Utah has yet to win this season when listed as an underdog of +543 or worse on the moneyline this season.
• The Utes have played eight games this season that ended with a combined score above 154.5 points.
• Utah has had an average of 146.7 points scored in its games so far this season, 7.8 points fewer than this game’s over/under.

Utah’s Top Players

BYU vs. Utah Scoring Insights

• The Cougars score 9.9 more points than the Utes give up (71.3).
• When BYU scores more than 71.3, it is 17-6 against the spread and 21-3 overall.
• Utah is 14-11 against the spread and 16-9 overall when conceding less than 81.2 points.
• The Utes’ 75.4 points per game are 5.4 more than the Cougars concede.
• Utah has a 13-7 ATS record and 15-5 overall record when putting up more than 70.0 points.
• BYU’s record is 14-5 versus the spread and 17-3 overall when giving up less than 75.4 points.
• The Cougars have outscored opponents by 338 points this season (11.2 per game), and the Utes have scored 125 more than their opponents (4.1 per game).

BYU vs. Utah Rankings

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As Congress seeks to extend the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and identify revenue offsets, communities across the country are urging lawmakers to preserve a fundamental economic development tool: the tax-exempt status of municipal bonds. Maintaining this tax exemption is crucial for building essential infrastructure in Utah communities and driving economic growth while saving Utah taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.

For over a century, tax-exempt municipal bonds have been the primary tool by which state and local governments, not-for-profits and economic developers finance large-scale public projects that underpin economic vitality and quality of life. These bonds allow for financing essential infrastructure that powers job creation and enables long-term economic prosperity. The tax exemption reduces borrowing costs, making it feasible for economic developers to undertake projects that benefit Utahns across the state.

Over the past 10 years alone in Utah, state and local governments have relied on tax-exempt bonds to finance $30 billion in projects such as schools, hospitals, housing, water treatment facilities and transportation systems. By keeping interest on these bonds tax-exempt, Utah taxpayers have saved an estimated $635 million. The projects financed are not just assets for local communities; they are catalysts for regional economic growth, attracting businesses, supporting a skilled workforce and enhancing the standard of living.

Eliminating or limiting the tax exemption on municipal bonds would raise borrowing costs, leading to significant fiscal challenges for Utah’s communities, especially the rural and smaller borrowers who account for 60% of projects financed. Higher costs for infrastructure projects would deter private investment, stifle job creation and ultimately increase the financial burden on businesses and taxpayers.

To answer our governor’s urgent call for Utah to build, we must preserve the financial tools that enable progress. The Economic Development Corporation of Utah and the Utah Alliance for Economic Development urge Congress to recognize the invaluable role that tax-exempt municipal bonds play in economic development. By maintaining this tax exemption, Congress can ensure that Utah’s communities have the right tools to address public infrastructure needs, sustain our quality of life and build without burdening taxpayers.

Lawmakers approved around $279 million in new funding requests for the next year late on Friday, the last night of Utah’s 2025 legislative session.

The Legislature signed off on 464 line items that represent spending priorities for legislative leadership in a tight budget year when lawmakers and state agencies competed over which of their bills and requests would get funded.

Budget chairs decided to give Utah Gov. Spencer Cox some of his big asks, while still ensuring that there was funding for bills that passed both chambers. There was also money for some proposals that failed, but lawmakers decided to bring about change with their spending decisions instead of by passing legislation.

Here are five of the major expenditures and surprises included in Utah lawmakers’ list of spending priorities.

Nuclear energy future

Cox received $8.25 million for his Operation Gigawatt initiative to double energy production over the next decade by investing in nuclear power.

While the dollar amount is far less than the $20 million Cox requested in his fiscal year 2026 budget recommendations to prepare nuclear reactor sites, it is much larger than the $1.75 million lawmakers tentatively set aside last week.

House Majority Leader Jefferson Moss, R-Saratoga Springs, said the state is looking for any way it can to speed up the development of nuclear reactors in Utah, whether its through agreements with neighboring states or by supporting research programs at the University of Utah.

“I just think this will help us to move the ball down the field,” Moss said.

Emergency funding for English language learners

The Legislature passed HB42 unanimously which would make an annual sum of $500,000 for “at-risk” students available to split between school districts with a significant increase in English language learner enrollment.

The bill defines a student learning English as a student who receives the very lowest score on an English language proficiency test that is given in the first 30 days of school to all students whose parents indicate that English is not their primary language.

But bill sponsor House Education Chair Candice Pierucci, R-Riverton, made a separate request for $5 million in one-time funds to serve as a “shot in the arm” for school districts struggling to keep up with the need for English instruction and larger class sizes because of increased immigration.

Budget committee members fully granted Pierucci’s request of $5 million to help train teachers, reduce class sizes, hire classroom aides and obtain other resources for English language learners, if a school district can show that one of their schools had a 75% increase in students learning English compared to the previous three-year average, and that the school lacks the funds to support the increase.

Debate commission shifts to UVU, the U

Late in the session, Rep. Nelson Abbott, R-Orem, introduced a bill that would have created a university-run election debate committee that would likely replace the nonprofit Utah Debate Commission.

The bill, which would have established the Utah Debate Committee at Utah Valley University to host primary and general election debates, failed in committee a week before the end of the legislative session. But senior appropriators ensured that the plan to shift responsibility for debates to public universities would still move forward.

The final-night “bill of bills” allocated $300,000 to Utah Valley University’s Gary R. Herbert Institute for Public Policy, and $300,000 to the University of Utah’s Hinckley Institute of Politics with the intent for the institutions to “collaborate on a proposal to host nonpartisan candidate debates” and to establish “a statewide, nonpartisan debate organization.”

“The universities are going to figure it out,” said Senate Budget Vice Chair Scott Sandall, R-Tremonton. “They’ll figure out where they’re going to house it, where they’re going to do it.”

Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, both communicated that they think universities will be better suited to handle the logistics and organization of nonpartisan political debates.

School and big tech

Hands-on high school: Lawmakers approved $145,000 in funding for athlete and ambulance grants for high school rodeo, which would support trips from high school school rodeo clubs and the presence of EMTs at events.

Social media shakedown: The Legislature also appropriated money for the enforcement of two groundbreaking pieces of social media legislation: $51,500 to enforce the App Store Accountability Act, which would require app stores to obtain parental consent for minors downloading apps, and $195,000 to implement Data Sharing Amendments, which would give social media users with the right to manage their own data.