Soccer: Tijuana triumphs at Rio Tinto in friendly against Santos Lagunas

Sandy • Real Salt Lake owner Dell Loy Hansen has made an effort this year to give his team's fan base more than just Major League Soccer games.

Bringing in Liga MX clubs Santos Lagunas and Club Tijuana (Xolos) for a Friday night friendly — the first all-Mexican exhibition at the stadium — in a leadup to the upcoming Clausura season was the most recent example of those efforts. 

With Real Salt Lake on the road to face FC Dallas on Saturday night, a modest-sized, passionate crowd of predominantly Mexican soccer fans was on hand. Mexican music was played, Mexican flags were waved, and Real Salt Lake's PA announcer Mike Waldvogel — one of RSL's bilingual staff members — provided commentary in Spanish as Xolos won 2-1.

"The Hispanic community in the United States is huge and for us, it's important to give back because they give so much to us," said Xolos' Paul Arriola, who grew up in Los Angeles and played earlier this summer with the U.S. national team before the Copa America Centario. "It's really important for us — especially American players — to be able to see the vibes and the people support their teams."

Both teams scored in the first half as the game drifted toward full time tied at 1. But in the 83rd minute, Xolos midfielder Luis Gerardo Chavez scored with a shot from well outside the box. Minutes later, Santos Laguna hit the crossbar trying to score an equalizer. 

On the pitch, some familiar faces were present. 

Former Mexican National Team coach Miguel Herrera is currently managing Xolos, which started Arriola in midfield and in defense had Greg Garza, who has also played for the U.S. national team and was returning from 10 months out due to injury. 

"Wish we could have got a little more people in the stands, [but] that's part of this," Garza said. "It's a wonderful experience for all of us. You get the best of both worlds."

Santos Laguna started defender Jorge Villafana, who helped the Portland Timbers win an MLS title last season and played for the U.S. Under-23 team in 2012. 

International friendlies are not new to the U.S. But in Salt Lake City this summer, it will be more visible. In addition to Friday's game, RSL will host Italian powerhouse Inter Milan in July.

"Obviously we're not their team — Real Salt Lake is — but to be able to show up and show us love is huge," Arriola said of the fans in attendance.

Summer League: Trey Lyles scores 26 points in Jazz’s loss to Celtics

Trey Lyles finished with a game-high 26 points and 11 rebounds, but the Utah Jazz lost 89-82 to the Boston Celtics and fell to 0-2 on Tuesday night at Vivint SmartHome Arena in the Utah Jazz Summer League.

"I take the loss personally because I'm the leader of this team and they all look for me for guidance and knowledge," Lyles said. "I'm definitely embracing the role and trying to do the best I can."

After a loss on Monday to the San Antonio Spurs, the Jazz had a lot to clean up. On Tuesday, the Jazz, who appeared more comfortable as a team, limited the Celtics to 28 points in the paint — having allowed 40 points in the paint to the Spurs — and held Boston to 30.8 percent shooting from the outside.

But the Celtics were able to draw fouls when they did penetrate into the paint, which led to 37 free-throw attempts.

"The thing that hurt was fouling once they got to the paint … we have to do a better job of showing our hands and being disciplined," Jazz summer league head coach Johnnie Bryant said.

Along with Lyles' big night, the Jazz were led by 29-year-old journeyman Dionte Christmas and NBA Summer League newcomer Spencer Butterfield of Utah State. Christmas finished with 14 points, while Butterfield added eight points and five rebounds. 

Butterfield started at guard for the Jazz after Olivier Hanlan was traded Tuesday afternoon to the San Antonio Spurs in exchange for Boris Diaw.

Leading the Celtics were James Young and Terry Rozier. Young finished with a team-high 17 points and five rebounds, while Rozier, who has been impressive in two games, added 16 points, six rebounds and four assists. No. 3 overall pick Jaylen Brown sat out Tuesday's game after suffering a hyperextended right knee in Monday's opening game against the Philadelphia 76ers. 

The Jazz Summer League has a day off on Wednesday before the third and final doubleheader of the week on Thursday night at the Huntsman Center on the University of Utah campus. The Celtics will play the Spurs at 5 p.m., followed by the 76ers against the Jazz at 7 p.m.

Utah Jazz lose summer league opener to Spurs

The Utah Jazz were happy to get their first summer league game out of the way, even if it ended in a 90-69 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Monday night at Vivint SmartHome Arena.

With two more games in Salt Lake City and the Las Vegas circuit soon after, the first game was viewed as a warmup. 

"Overall, it was good … it was the first time playing together," Jazz summer league head coach Johnnie Bryant said.

Still, the Jazz know they have a lot to clean up going into Tuesday's set of games. Utah will play the Boston Celtics at 5 p.m.; the first game, between San Antonio and Philadelphia, will start at 3 p.m. 

"It's good to get the first one out of the way. We obviously didn't play the way we wanted (to)," Jazz guard Marcus Paige said. "We [need to] clean some things up on defense, we have the right personnel to be a lot better." 

As the headliner of the roster, second-year forward Trey Lyles did his part. Posting a team-high 13 points and 12 points, Lyles, who finished 3-for-6 from 3-point range, started off hot and scored 11 points in the first quarter to set an example for how the rest of the Jazz players want to produce moving forward. 

"It gives him the ability to lead," Bryant said about Lyles' opportunity this week. "He's the quote-unquote 'old guy' — even though he's 20 — leading the younger guys that are actually older than him. He's done great job being vocal, showing he has the ability to lead the group." 

In the backcourt, Aaron Craft and Paige shared point guard duties. Craft finished with eight points and two steals, while Paige added seven points. In the frontcourt, Tibor Pleiss had seven points and four rebounds, and rookie Joel Bolomboy of Weber State had two points and five rebounds.

"I was a little nervous going out there, I had a lot of people come out to support me," Bolomboy said. "We have so much more to play and so much more room to grow as a team." 

Olivier Hanlan, last year's second-round draft pick from Boston College who spent the past season playing in Lithuania, finished with 11 points, three rebounds and three assists. 

UVU basketball: Wolverines break ground for new facility

On Wednesday morning, Utah Valley University broke ground on its first basketball practice facility. The new $3.5 million, 14,500-square-foot practice and conditioning center will offer 8,000 square feet of coart space, nine basketball standards and what the program calls "game-day atmosphere" graphics. 

"All of us who know President [Matthew] Holland and what he's done here at this University is truly amazing," men's basketball coach Mark Pope said. "The way he's grown it, the way he's made it functional for every single student here and student athlete to chase their dreams as hard they can … this building is going to play a huge role in that." 

The privately funded facility will be called the NUVI Basketball Center, named after its lead donor, NUVI executive chair Keith Nellesen. 

"The thing that connects a community to a college is sports," Nellesen said. "Here at UVU, as it's grown from this tiny technical college to, I believe, the largest publicly funded university in the state of Utah, you need to build that connection. Basketball is going to be that connection." 

On the surface, it's a move that was prompted by being in the competitive Western Athletic Conference, which features bigger programs that already offer its own facilities and arenas. 

"You only get connected to an athletic program that wins and if it wins championships," Nellesen said. "In today's day and age, if you want to win and win championships, and build a great program, you have to have facilities to go out and recruit the best players that they feel can come and develop them. I believe with this facility, UVU will be able to compete at a high level."

Pope, now entering his second season, said its purpose and impact go far beyond its structural layout. 

"It's a really important step among a thousand steps we have to take for our program to get to the level we want to get to," Pope said. "The beauty of Utah Valley is that they allow to come in here … take any great idea and chase it as fast as you can. Hopefully this is one of many examples that we'll have here." 

The Wolverines had been practicing at local high school gyms and sharing available facilities with other sports programs. When the circus would come to town, they even shared space with tigers. 

Junior forward Zach Nelson will be a part of the first group of Wolverines who will help break in the basketball teams' new home.

"To be able to have a facility like this where it's ours, where we're not sharing with other high schools … is really exciting for us as a university, us as a team and us as a community." 

Next fall, Pope and Cathy Nixon, who will enter her 22nd season as the women's head coach, will move into their new space. It will officially mark another groundbreaking moment for Utah Valley. 

For Pope and Nixon, there is always more ground to break, more steps to be taken. 

"We continue to break ground," Nixon said. "For us to have a home where we can go and live and we're not guests is just literally something I've dreamed about for long, long time. We're just looking for a bright, bright future ahead."

NBA: Ben Simmons and Jaylen Brown fill up the stat sheets in SLC Summer League opener

Ben Simmons learned a valuable lesson in his first summer league game: Drink more fluids. 

After cramping up in the third quarter of his summer league debut against the Boston Celtics, the Philadelphia 76ers' No. 1 overall pick, who attributed his injury to not playing for the past four months, plans to sit out in Tuesday's game against the San Antonio Spurs.

"It's an adjustment, obviously," Simmons said. "The game is a lot harder, a lot quicker. It's one of those things you just got to stay on it."

Simmons and Jaylen Brown still gave fans a glimpse of their respective talents in the opening game of Monday's doubleheader. Both top-three picks guarded each other all game; Brown finished with 16 points and six rebounds in Boston's 102-94 win, while Simmons finished with 10 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

Even in a July exhibition, there was no question why Simmons' name was called first in the Draft. At 6-foot- 10, he ran the floor like a point guard and dictated the game like a veteran. 

"There's going to be a lot of opportunities where I can find guys like I did today," he said.

The former LSU star did a little bit of everything and made it look easy. Simmons even faced up Brown in the first half and smoothly knocked down an elbow jumper.

"Ball handling, confidence, communication, swagger, enthusiasm, love for teammates," Sixers coach Billy Lange said of Simmons. "It wasn't about him. Everyone wants to put a label to it, but he's just a basketball player. He's a really good basketball player … there is still a long journey ahead."

Brown wasn't too shabby himself. Despite taking a little longer to get settled in, the 19-year-old forward from California attacked the rim and exhibited a calmness that contradicted his age. Late in the fourth, Brown got in his groove and showed why the Celtics decided to take him at No. 3.

Salt Lake Bees: Ji-Man Choi pursues a lonely, but promising path to majors

The Salt Lake Bees' first Korean player lives alone in a downtown hotel. On a typical day, he passes time watching Korean TV shows and mentally preparing for the game. 

At 25, Ji-Man Choi, the first Korean player to jump from high school to the professional ranks, mostly keeps to himself. 

When he hits a slump or feels lonely, he reaches out to fellow Korean pros like Texas Rangers' outfielder Shin-Shoo Choo, who he looks to for counsel. 

"We talk a lot," Choi said. "We share many common experiences, so he truly understands my situation. He knows what it means to be a Korean minor leaguer in the U.S."

Unfortunately, Choi receives little love from the fans and his peers back home in Korea. He says they have forgotten about him.

"For minor leaguers, the spotlight that we get when we first leave for the U.S. fades away very quickly," he said. "That is the sad reality of Korean minor leaguers."

Choi has played seven seasons in the minors, a career that has been defined so far by untimely injuries and a suspension for using PEDs. He still struggles with English, a problem exacerbated by the fact that there are no translators at the minor league level.

However, Choi's talent is still intriguing enough that it earned him a short stint with the parent Angels to start the season. And Bees' manager Keith Johnson is impressed with what he calls Choi's keen baseball intellect.

"He has a really good feel for the game," Johnson said. "Obviously he speaks Korean, I speak English, but the language of baseball we both understand. He has a pretty high baseball IQ." 

At his peak, Choi was as good as advertised. In his debut with the Mariners' Arizona League team, Choi hit .378 with 51 hits and 23 RBIs, earning him the league's most valuable player award. 

Then, five seasons into his minor league career, Choi suffered an unexpected setback — a 50-game suspension for using a banned substance that was soon coupled with a fractured fibula suffered during the first spring training game in 2015. By November, Choi packed his bags after signing a minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles. Despite showing promise, Choi was left exposed to the Rule V Draft, which led him to the Angels. 

Choi is now a minor league journeyman with elite bat speed and good size at 6-foot-1 and 230 pounds who has played at every position from catcher to first base to the outfield. Through 37 games with the Bees, Choi is hitting .324 with four homers and 24 RBIs. 

"He plays the game the right way; he does a lot of good things in the batter's box, which adds to his value," Johnson said. "He's doing a really good job as far as his maturity level of understanding the game and not worrying about all the outside distractions … going about his business in the right way." 

Learning English isn't a high priority anymore, and he doesn't respond to questions about his PED suspension. Instead, Choi is solely focused on getting the call back up to the big leagues.

Choi did get a taste when he was called up to the big club in early April. There he got a preview of what could be — all the trappings of the sport at its major league level, and playing in a city with a big Korean population. He even had a translator.

Then in May, Choi was sent down to Salt Lake, where he has been ever since. But now he knows he has a chance.

"In a way, seven years is a long time," Choi said. "It is a waiting game. I used to put a lot of pressure on myself. Maybe it was greed from my part. However, after I had a stint in the majors, I sort of learned to enjoy every moment because I proved to myself that I am good enough to play in the majors."