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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 27, 2003)
Sports The Battalion Page I B • Monday, January 27, 2003 ucs oeat Raiders in Super Bowl, 48-21 HB V5) J /*d PHOTO COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS luccaneer safety Dexter Jackson returns an interception in the first half on Sunday. By Dave Goldberg THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN DIEGO —Just defense, baby! The Tampa Bay Buccaneers didn’t need much more — for most of the game, anyway. Coach Jon Gruden and his Bucs won the Super Bowl on Sunday, routing the Oakland Raiders 48-21 in the first matchup of the NFL’s best offense against its best defense. The Tampa Bay defense won by a mile, shutting down the Raiders for three quarters and holding on as they made a belated comeback attempt. Super Bowl MVP Dexter Jackson had two interceptions, as did Dwight Smith, who returned both of his picks for touchdowns, including a 50-yarder to finish off the scoring with 2 seconds left in the game. Derrick Brooks also returned an interception for a touch down. Simeon Rice had two of the Bugs’ five sacks as Tampa romped to a 20-3 halftime lead then scored two quick third-quarter touchdowns. That rendered futile a late comeback by the Raiders that included a touch down on a blocked punt and 48-yard TD pass from league MVP Rich Gannon to Jerry Rice. The Tampa Bay offense did its part, too, led by Michael Pittman, who ran for 124 yards on 29 carries. Mike Alston had a 2-yard TD run and Brad Johnson added two TD passes to Keenan McCardell, the second an 11- yarder after an 89-yard drive that ate up almost eight minutes of the third quar ter. Just 43 seconds later. Smith grabbed the ball away from Jerry Rice and took it to the end zone to make it 34-3. Oakland owner A1 Davis’ slogan “Just win, baby!’’ wasn’t going to work this time. How good was the Tampa Bay defense? Oakland had just 62 total yards in the first half, second-lowest total in Super Bowl history. And the five inter ceptions of Gannon were the most he had in any game this season. He fin ished 24-of-44 for 272 yards and two touchdowns. Credit the win also to the 39-year- old Gruden, who left Oakland a year ago for Tampa Bay in what seemed at the time far too much in draft picks and cash — $8 million to be exact. But Gruden’s knowledge of his old team worked out perfectly. “Every play they’ve run, we’ve run in practice,’’ Tampa Bay safety John Lynch said. To be fair, the Raiders might have entered this game a bit distracted. Their All-Pro center, Barret Robbins, was sent home before the game for missing team functions on Saturday. The Bucs took advantage, with Warren Sapp, Lynch and the interior defense pushing up the middle constantly against backup center Adam Treu to put pressure on Gannon and shut down the run. This was a victory for one of the NFL’s longtime sad sacks. ggies silence KSU with home-win By Dallas Shipp THE BATTALION Following comments from Wildcat sen- ir forward Matt Siebrandt in newspapers Her this week, senior guard Bernard ing and the Aggies finally had their ance Saturday night to show Kansas State at they might not be Kansas, but they are new team this year.” The Aggies used Siebrandt’s words as lotivafion going into Saturday night’s |ame against Kansas State, and apparently, worked as the Aggies (10-5, 2-2 Big 12) at the Wildcats (11-7, 2-3 Big 12) 79-66 |t Reed Arena. Siebrandt said the game against A&M 'is a must-win for us (KSU). It’s not like we Ire playing KU again or some top team in |ieconference...but it’s also a game we can H)se if we aren't ready to play.” King and freshman guard Antoine I bright took exception to his comments and Hecided to post them around the locker |>om this week. The duo brought the quote to the post- | ame press conference, enlarged on an 8- by-10 piece of paper, except this time, Siebrandt’s name had been crossed out and replaced with King’s, as if King said it. “Let them take that back to Kansas,” Wright said. “We’re a new team this year.” Following the game, Siebrandt still refused to give A&M credit for the win. “We killed ourselves tonight,” Siebrandt said. “We shot ourselves in the foot. We just have to deal with that.” After learning of Siebrandt’s post-game comments King had a reply of his own. “It doesn't matter how (Siebrandt) wants to put it,” King said. “We saw who won.” The game was close for the first 26 min utes before A&M went on a 20-5 run and never looked back. King and Wright both posted double-doubles and led the way for the Aggies. “If they try to take my game away I just pass it to Antoine,” King said. “There are no two players on any team who can stop both of us.” Wright had a game-high 24 points and 1 1 rebounds versus the Wildcats. Wright fell just one point short of his career-high of 25, achieved earlier in the year against Miami. King entered the game needing 28 points to become the all-time scoring leader in A&M school history in what was likely his only chance to break the record at home. Although he did not break the record. King did match his career high of 11 assists and scored 18 points, giving him his third double-double of the season. “We got the win and that’s all I care about,” King said. “We want to be at the top of the Big 12 and we want to play in the NCAA tournament; that’s our goal.” The loss was the 11 th straight confer ence defeat on the road for the Wildcats. KSU Head Coach Jim Wooldridge said he could not explain his team’s road struggles. “We’re faced with the same challenge,” Wooldridge said. “We haven’t learned how to (win on the road). We can make a lot of excuses, but the bottom line is (A&M) played better than we did today. The hustle stats show that.” A&M out-rebounded Kansas State 40-37, which is impressive since the Wildcats are one of the better rebound ing teams in the country. The Aggies’ next game will be on the road against No. 7 Oklahoma Tuesday night in Norman, Okla. JP BEATO III • THE BATTALION Antoine Wright shoots over a Kansas State defender in Saturday's game. The Aggies defeated the Wildcats to gain a second conference victory. 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