.. The Battalion
'SPORTS 9
Monday, January 29,1990 Sports Editor Richard Tijerina 845-2688
W— ' .m—M I « !
Clay
Rasmussen
Assistant Sports Editor
ubscrfcji
mniversi]
he imuj
ii stud:-
tting M
scortshj
Longhorn grad
turned Ag prof
‘ bleeds maroon
in IW
khasba
Gi
)lack
le by sit VXig ’em Homs ... er, or is
said T? diat Hook ’em Aggies,
m. “If , ] Confused? So am I.
you uJ Just recently I learned of an A&M
tooted;marketing professor obsessed with Ag-
■e sports. Who else but a fanatical prof
1 u l *°uld s P cn d his first lecture day show-
tmeX C ^ aSS 3 v '^ eo ta P e t ^ ie
lri M&M baseball team and its dream sea-
nn?
I A lot of instructors around our campus
' feel the same sort of bond with Texas
■.&M as their students.
I But how about the fact that Dr. James
Meigh graduated from the University of
■exas?
I And if being a teasip graduate wasn’t
aste tiip ei-mgh, Leigh also has earned a master’s
here fjegree from t.u.
And yet he’s an Aggie fanatic.
Growing up in Austin, Leigh was sur-
unded by Longhorns (of the collegiate
pe).
His time after school, no doubt, was
■pent in a soda shop munching on Bevo
:,Andf| Burgers and drinking orange shakes,
uandi ?dreaming of t.u. coeds.
ghioJ
Deciding t.u. not hard
dema:!
.pus d
of si
the ripjl “l might have thought about going to
liable;Knottier college,” Leigh said. “Sort of a
emicev ‘(' lC t outta p>odge’ attitude, but Austin
i maii:
was tk
®ad always been my home.
rst KhiM cousins are Longhorns and my
ee frj'^lbend was still living there, so I sta-
be hen y e ^-
I Leigh ended up studying marketing
he nedlnd was your normal, everyday Long-
ese pt" hom lover.
I He was caught up in the A&M-Texas
iow, ai: rivalries, even though he didn’t spend
' oes; much time at the athletic events.
°w 9 ^ 0 ’ s boot ahead about a decade and
A,Suddenly Leigh is a professor of market-
dofsppngat A&M. And like new students who
loes pSomc to the University, he was swept up
Hen ! in the spirit of Aggieland.
lows,® “Students at A&M seem more com-
id learfinitted to the University,” Leigh said.
bYou see enthusiasm across all facets.
undf|^t Texas, there was only a small group
^'flfdedicated Longhorns; mainly the ath-
“ "fafc boosters."
I‘"I The more Leigh realized the bonds be-
Kween student and school, the more he
Recame impressed with his newfound
Riche at A&M. And he became quite the
®ggie fan, even to the point of accusing
Bhe Longhorns of dirty football.
I “The more I watch Texas, the more I
grealize they play a dirty sort of football,”
iteigh said.
ifSOfl Leigh has blended in well with Ag-
nlOflfe' 68 even ta L' n g on A&M characteris-
p -Allies, like a hatred of Louisiana State and
na p„;f a fierce loyalty to Aggie baseball,
has«
n vii Making the switch
esearf’;
ty fr®
^sst Leigh has said that what has kept
g Bl» Texas from sharing the same sort of
Ispirit felt at A&M is its size and back-
? grounds of students.
“Texas always has attracted national
students and is so large, while A&M has
||rawn in students from around the state
and stayed smaller than UT,” Leigh said.
i'Now, as A&M becomes nationally rec
ognized, it will attract students from
pround the nation and the world, just like
Texas.”
[ And if we progress like Texas ... 1
shudder to think.
I So does Leigh.
“I hope I’m wrong, because A&M is a
good place to be,” Leigh said.
|| What is really scary, though, is the fact
‘that Leigh’s attitudes aren’t unique.
[k “I think if you go around and talk to
some of the instructors around A&M that
have graduated from Texas, you’ll find a
great many of them feel as I do,” Leigh
said.
Can we expect an onslaught of t.u.
grads to our campus?
Actually, that’s kind of flattering.
What better way to humble the Long
horns than to beat them six years in a
row in football, take two-of-three in
baseball and steal all their graduates and
convert them to Aggies.
Maybe we can even identify them on
fational television at the next A&M-
$exas game, and have them sing the War
Hymn.
Cougars dominate Aggies in 108-90 romp
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
A&M’s Brooks Thompson (I) battles Craig Upchurch for a loose ball.
Ags drop to 3-4
in SWC ledger
By JAY PEDEN
Of The Battalion Staff
HOUSTON — The Houston Cougars
thoroughly dominated the Aggies 108-90 in
a Southwest Conference basketball game
Saturday at Hofheinz Pavilion.
For the first seven minutes, the Aggies
played the Cougars closely as the lead see
sawed 12 times. With 12:22 left in the first
half, guard Byron Smith hit the first of his
game-high six three-point goals to give the
Cougars a 22-19 lead.
It was a lead they would not relinquish.
After Smith’s three-pointer, Houston
scored nine more unanswered points to
open a 12-point lead.
A&M guard Freddie Ricks broke the
string with a lay-up, and after the two teams
traded baskets, Brooks Thompson hit a
three-pointer to cut the Cougars’ lead to
seven.
The Aggies never got closer than that.
Cougar guard Derrick Daniels answered
Thompson’s trey with one of his own, and
Houston gradually padded its lead the rest
of the half. The Cougars led 55-42 at the in
termission.
“We were sluggish,” Aggie point guard
Tony Milton said. “In the first half, we had
no intensity. That’s when they opened it
up.”
The second half began much the same
way the first ended. The Cougars contin
ued to score, and the Aggies could not stop
them or make up any ground.
Between Daniels’ first-half three-pointer
and trash time, the Aggies scored four con
secutive points only four times.
The Aggies didn’t make a run at the
Cougars until the last three minutes of the
game, when the Cougars had emptied their
bench.
With 3:07 left in the game and Houston
savoring a 108-78 advantage, rarely-used
Cougars Gerry Holmes, Sam Pyle and Dar
rell Grayson came in.
They allowed the Aggies to score 12
straight points, making the final score
closer than the game actually was.
“I don’t think we were as ready to play as
we needed to be today against Houston,”
A&M Coach John Thornton said.
The loss leaves A&M 3-4 in the confer
ence and 10-11 overall. Houston is now 4-3,
14-6 overall.
Center David Harris was the only real
stand-out for the Aggies, scoring 26 on 12-
of-16 shooting against Cougar big men Carl
Herrera, Craig Upchurch, Alvaro Teheran
and Kelvin Smith.
“I was really pleased with David Harris,”
Thornton said. “When you consider what
that guy was facing, he did an admirable
job. There was no rest for David. He played
exceptionally hard.”
Milton added 10 rebounds and 25 points
for the Aggies, but hit only 10 of his 23
field-goal attempts.
The Aggies were outrebounded 50-38
and out-assisted 29-19. There was also a se
vere discrepancy in the three-point shot de
partment.
The Aggies made only one of their 10
three-point attempts, with Thompson be
ing the lone marksman.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the court,
the Cougars were hitting 8-of-13. Smith led
the long-range assault with 6-of-9 shooting
from beyond the arc, including three in a
span of 1:10 midway through the second
half.
Daniels hit 2-of-3 three-pointers, and he
dished out a career-high 14 assists.
Smith combined long-range accuracy
with 11-of-15 overall shooting to lead all
scorers with 29 points.
Houston center Herrera added 20 points
and pulled down 11 rebounds.
“They did the things that a great basket
ball team does,” Thornton said, “and they
were one today.”
Herner sparks Lady Ags in win
Photo by Phelan M. Ebenhack
Sheri Dillard (23) tries to block UH’s Cynthia Jackson Saturday in Hous
ton. A&M won, 88-67. The win improved its conference record to 4-3
By NADJA SABAWALA
Of The Battalion Staff
HOUSTON — The Lady Aggies held off
the University of Houston Lady Cougars to
win 88-67 in a battle of free throws Satur
day in Houston.
A&M senior point guard Lisa Herner
scored a career-nigh 28 points, lifting the
Aggies’ record to 12-6 overall and 4-3 in the
Southwest Conference.
Herner, who had a 5.4i-scoring-average
before the game, had a game-high 11
points in the first half on five-of-six shoot
ing.
“Before the game, you could just see the
intensity in everybody’s face,” Herner said.
“I think that game me an edge.”
Senior forward Lori Dillard followed
Herner with 18 points and was eight-of-
eight in her free throw attempts.
“Usually we can say we lost the game be
cause of free throws, but today we can say
we won the game because of free throws,”
Dillard said.
The Lady Cougars pulled away from
A&M with an early seven point lead, aided
by a three-point shot by junior guard Ar
lene Brown. The Lady Aggies came back
and tied the game 10-10 with 13:27 left in
the half.
A&M soon began to pull away from
Houston, extending its lead by 13 points
with 7:47 remaining. Houston followed
with an eight-point attack in the final min
ute of the first period, but the Lady Aggies
remained on top, 36-34 at the end of the
half.
A&M returned from the locker room
and slowly chipped away at the Lady Cou
gars.
Lady Aggie Coach Lynn Hickey said,
“We came back out in the second half and
executed much better and we worked as a
team.”
The game fluctuated around a seven-
point lead throughout much of the second
half until the Lady Cougars began fouling
A&M.
With 5:09 left in the game, the Lady Ag
gies pulled away again. Dillard was fouled
three times in the final minutes, converting
six-of-six for a 10-point lead.
“We haven’t even been at the free throw
line in a lot of our contests because we
haven’t been aggressive taking the ball to
the basket,” Hickey said.
Eleven of the last 15 points were from
the free throw line, and A&M held on to
win.
55-10
MVP Montana shines in Super Bowl rout over Broncos
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Joe Montana
and the.San Francisco 49ers proved Sunday
that they have just one competitor — his
tory.
In the most dominant performance ever
at a Super Bowl, the 49ers routed the
Denver Broncos 55-10 to become the first
repeat NFL champion in a decade and tie
the Pittsburgh Steelers as a pinnacle of Su
per Bowl perfection with wins in four tries.
Montana had five touchdown passes,
three to Jerry Rice, breaking a Super Bowl
record for TD passes on a day on which he
also set a record with 13 straight comple
tions.
He also set five Super Bowl career re
cords, including his third Super Bowl MVP
award and San Francisco’s point total was
the most ever. Montana left the game with
nearly 11 minutes to play. His final num
bers: 22-df-29 passes for 297 yards.
In four Super Bowls he has thrown 11
touchdowns and no interceptions.
For Denver quarterback John Elway, it
was a day of futility, ending with his third
Super Bowl defeat. He missed eight of his
first 10 passes and was intercepted twice
and fumbled once.
By halftime it was 27-3 as San Francisco
was playing against the record book rather
than the Broncos, who by then were doing
just the reverse — tying a. Super Bowl re
cord for losses — 0-4 — with the Minnesota
Vikings.
San Francisco was boringly perfect,
doing more than even the experts who
made them favorites by nearly two touch
downs after a 14-2 season and a waltz
through< the playoffs. The NFC has now
won six straight Super Bowls.
Along with the records came a milestone
as George Seifert, who took over when Bill
Walsh retired after last season, became only
the second rookie coach to win a Super
Bowl — Baltimore’s Don McCafferty was
the first in 1971 — and marked the sixth
straight win by an NFC team.
From the moment Montana hit Rice with
a 20-yard TD pass 4:54 into the game, the
outcome seemed a foregone conclusion.
He began with the 20-yarder Rice, then
threw a 7-yarder to tight end Brent Jones
and put the game away with 34 seconds left
in the half with a 38-yarder to Rice, last
year’s MVP, who had 7 receptions for 148
yards. He hit Rice again from 28 yards and
John Taylor from 35 early in the third
See 49ers/Page 10
Lendl snatches
Aussie Open as
Edberg withdraws
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) —Ivan
Lendl, handed a second straight Austra
lian Open title when Stefan Edberg quit
with an injury, hasn’t changed his mind
about passing up a chance to go for a
rare Grand Slam. iwt
Lendl said Sunday he still plans to
skip the day courts of the French Open
and train for the grass of Wimbledon —
the one major he has never won.
“I don’t worry about the record books
or my place in the game. I just would like
to win” Wimbledon, Lendl said.
The Australian Open, marred by inju
ries and John McEnroe’s stormy exit,
ended abruptly when Edberg retired
from the final match with a torn stomach
muscle after Lendl took a 4-6, 7-6 (7-3),
5-2 lead.
It was the first time in the Australian’s
85-year history — and the first time in
any Grand Slam event since Wimbledon
in 1911 — that a men’s finalist quit in the
middle of a match.
“It doesn’t feel as great as if I had won
it fair and square,” said Lendl, com
forted by the $200,000 winner’s share.
“I hope Stefan recovers soon,” he
said. “It’s unfortunate, but sometimes
things happen this way. He carried on
for quite awhile and showed great cour
age. I hope we can come back 12 months
from now and slug it out till the end.”
Lendl, a Czech who lives in Green
wich, Conn., said that despite the tainted
result, “a win is a win.”
Edberg said he hurt himself in his last
service game of a semifinals victory over
fellow Swede Mats Wilander. Edberg,
who has had strained abdominal muscles
several times in the past, felt the pain
from the start of Sunday’s match but
played for 2V2 hours.
“It kept getting worse and worse,” he
said. “I could only serve at 75 percent.”
Dr. David Bolzonello, the tournament
physician, said, “I think he made the
right decision by not progressing.”
The two-week tournament had more
than its share of problems.
Women’s second seed Gabriela Saba-
tini and Australia’s Mark Woodforde
were forced from their third-round
matches with sprained ankles.
McEnroe was thrown out from his
fourth-round match for staring at a line-
swoman, swearing at the umpire and
cracking a racket.
Edberg, forced to retire from the Aus
tralian Open with a back injury last year,
was in obvious pain from the middle of
the second set on.
A trainer worked on him after the
fifth game of the second set, when Ed
berg took advantage of four errors to
break Lendl and put the set back on
serve at 3-2 Lendl’s.
Edberg held and kept the set on serve,
pushing it to a tiebreaker when he came
back from 15-40 in the 12th game.
But after Edberg took the first two
points of the tiebreaker, Lendl won the
next six, including one on a double-fault
by Edberg, and took the set with a back
hand passing shot that whizzed down the
line.
Edberg double-faulted on the last two
points to suffer a break in the opening
game of the third set. He fought back
three break points in the third game to
hold after five deuces. But the injury was
clearly slowing him, weakening his serve
and draining him of energy.