The Galveston Daily News from Galveston, Texas • Page 25

Sports Section Local, State, World Sports Page 1 Sunday Morning, November 16,1980 Bears take swc crown HOUSTON (UPI) Walter Abercrombie ran 79 yards on the first play from scrimmage and lOth-ranked Baylor added three field goals by Robert Bledsoe to defeat Rice, 16-6, Saturday and clinch its fourth Southwest Conference championship. Baylor, 9-1, will host the Cotton Bowl for the second time in seven years after attempting next Saturday to become the winningest team in Baylor history in its regular-season finale against Texas. Abercrombie, a junior tailback, gained 166 yards and scored Baylor's only touchdown on a 1-yard plunge after being dragged down from behind by Rice's Mike Downs on his 79- yard run. Rice's defense stiffened after the initial shock and prevented the nation's fifth-best offense from penetrating the Owls' 5- yard line again. However, Bledsoe came through with field goals of 43, 24 and 33 yards.

Rice mustered only Kenneth Sam's field goals of 35 and 34 yards as it tried to play giant- killer once again this season. The Owls had previously beaten LSU and Arkansas with fourth- quarter rallies. Abercrombie's 166 yards on 24 carries made him only the third Baylor back in 81 years to gain 1,000 yards in a season. He now has 1,120 yards. The Bears previously won SWC championships in 1922, 1924, and 1974.

Rice quarterback Randy Hertel completed three of four passes for 31 yards in the final seconds of the first half to drive the Owls to their second field goal and make the halftime score 10-6. Baylor partially blocked a punt midway through the third quarter and took possession of the ball at the Rice 49-yard line. From there, Baylor pushed 42 yards to the Rice 7, and Bledsoe's 24-yard field goal ed the Bears' lead to 13-6. The fourth quarter was scoreless until Bledsoe booted his 33-yard field goal with 2:23 to play. Sports Phone 744-3611 UPITelephoto Walter Abercrombie (34) stacked up by Rice defense Ball wins By FRANK KELLEY News Sports Writer In their season opener the Ball High Golden Tornado roundballers couldn't of had a more impressive debut as they whipped the Houston Davis Panthers 88-74.

Four Tors scored in double figures as the defending District 24 5-A champs put 50 points on the Scoreboard in the second half. Leading Tor scorer's was Greg Pleasant who pumped in 15 points. The 6 foot 4 inch center also snatched 7 rebounds to lead the Tors in that department. The Panthers led the Tors at the end of the first period 17-15. But coach T.

Berry's bunch took control the second period and went into the half with a 38-33 lead. Davis' Thomas Bradley led all scorer's with 17. Trailing Bradley in Panther scoring was Kevin Phillips who came up with 16. Tor guard Phillip Harris' quickness and superb shooting ability allowed the Tors to take command of the second period and coast home with a victory. With 6:19 remaining in the game Harris put in his sixth straight point to give the Tors a 76-57 lead.

Harris scored all of his 13 points in the second half of play. Rounding out the Tor double figure scoring were Carl Hilton with 14 and Oscar White who hit the hoop for 12. I 1U1 LA. Baylor hopes to dance the Cotton-Eyed Joe by Tide al game, had held out a slight hope shiD with a 16-6 trinmnh International The Baylor Bears earned their second Cotton Bowl trip in history Saturday and for then- trouble they won the right to play a team that beat them by 45 points only a season ago. Cotton Bowl officials grabbed off the Alabama Crimson Tide as the guest team for their Jan.

1 show moments after Alabama fell for the second time this season a 7-0 setback at the hands of Notre Dame. Bowl executive director Jim Brock and former executive director Field Scovell, both of whom attended the Notre Dame-Alabama SWC roundup game, had held out a slight hope that Notre Dame might want to come to Dallas if it defeated Alabama Saturday. But the Irish voted to go to the Sugar Bowl for a meeting with No 1 Georgia. "We're very pleased to get Alabama and Bear Bryant" a spokesman for the Cotton Bowl said in Dallas shortly after the announcement was made. "Anytime you get that combination you've got some of the elite people in football." Baylor won the host spot in the Cotton Bowl and the undisputed Southwest Conference champion- ship with a 16-6 triumph over Rice Saturday.

The Bears first went to the Cotton Bowl in 1974, losing to Penn State. And Baylor's only other meeting ever with Alabama was last year when the Tide won, 45-0. Baylor linebacker Mike Singletary and defensive end Max McGeary summed up the Bears' "I'm about to go crazy. It feels great to go to the Cotton Bowl," Singletary said. "When I was 7 years old," McGeary said, "my family went to Six Flags and the State Fair of Texas (in Dallas).

I saw that big stadium sitting on the fairgrounds and I told my mother that someday I would play in there. It's the biggest dream of my life coming true." By winning the Cotton Bowl berth, quarterback Jay Jeffrey duplicated what his brother Neal did as quarterback of the 1974 Bears. "There was a lot of pressure today. But no matter what now, we've got the championship ring. It hasn't hit me yet.

I'll probably wake up tonight screaming for joy," Jeffrey said. While the Cotton Bowl was making its match, the Southwest Con- ference managed to land four teams in post-season events for the seventh time ever and for the fourth straight year. Texas, thanks to a 51-26 win over TCU, picked up a bid to the Bluebonnet Bowl to face North Carolina on New Year's Eve night- SMU, despite losing to Texas Tech, 14-0, accepted a bid to the Holiday Bowl in San Diego on Dec. 19 against the winner of the Western Athletic Conference (probably Brigham Young) and Houston, which had the weekend off, was given a bid to the Garden State Bowl against Navy on Dec. 14.

Sun Bowl officials had wanted to invite Southern Methodist, but the Mustangs had decided before their game with Texas Tech that they would take the San Diego invitation No representative from the Sun Bowl bothered to go to the Tech- SMU game. Bluebonnet Bowl executive director Tex Thornton was in the Texas dressing room to issue the bid to Texas. Thornton had said before the game that if TCU upset Texas, the Iionghorns would not be issued an invitaton. The trip to the Cotton Bowl will be the fifth for Alabama. Little coasts into Bluebonnents By United Press International The roller coaster career of Donnie Little hit one of its peaks Saturday and because it did the Texas Longhorns coasted into the Bluebonnet Bowl.

Little scored three times, passed for another touchdown and threw 12 straight completions in one stretch to help the Longhorns subdue the TCU Horned Frogs, 51-26, on a gloomy, chilly afternoon. In other conference action, Arkansas held on to defeat Texas 27-24, Baylor won the conference by stopping Rice 16-6 and Texas Tech blanked SMU 14-0. Little, who had lost his starting job to Rick Mclvor because of his erratic performance the past month, regained the No. 1 job this week because of an injury Mclvor suffered against Houston a week ago. The junior quarterback responded by turning in one of the finest games of his career, igniting Texas to a 27-7 halftime lead and directing the critical drive that finally halted a TCU comeback.

Little gained 119 yards on 16 rushes and completed 16 of 21 passes for 215 yards. The 19th-ranked Longhorns thus boosted their season record to 7-2 and their SWC mark to 4-2 with games remaining against conference champion Baylor and Texas The Bluebonnet Bowl matchup between the Longhorns and Tarheels (9-1) will take place on New Year's Eve night in the Astrodome. Ish Ordonez kicked a 27-yard field goal with eight seconds left to lift Arkansas to a 27-24 Southwest Conference victory over Texas Saturday. Ordonez' winning kick made up for a 40-yard try he missed with 5:24. The triumph snapped Arkansas' three-game losing streak.

The Hogs' winning rally started on their 41 after a short Aggies punt. Quarterback Tom Jones hit running back Gary Anderson with an 8-yard pass on a fourth-and-2 conversion to keep Arkansas moving at the Aggies 25. Arkansas jumped to a 24-0 lead but the Aggies scored touchdowns on their first two possessions of the third period, a safety just before the quarter ended and another touchdown and a two-point conversion with less than three minutes in the fourth period to tie the game. Ron Reeves broke many a Red Raider career record in leading Texas Tech to a 14-0 victory over Southern Methodist Saturday in a Southwest Conference game. Despite the loss, which dropped the Ponies to 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the SWC, SMU accepted a bid from the Holiday Bowl committee where they are expected to meet Brigham Young in San Diego, Calif.

SMU mounted scoring threats game buf'failed twice on crucial fourth down plays. The shutout was the first for Tech in 57 games. UPI Telephoto Les Koening catches a Bonnie Little scoring pass Irish blanking Alabama tastes as sweet as sugar I Tfc i News photo by Baron Unbehagen O'CONNELL QUARTERBACK Bobby Eg- a 14-7 win over Beaumont Kelly. The Bucs won a estori looks for a receiver under the protection share of the District 1-3A championship, of the Bucaneers' offensive line. Eggleston was the toss that Marion won six out of 11 for 117 yards in leading O'Conneli to By United Press International College football's annual bidding war started Saturday and it turned up sweet as Sugar for top-ranked Georgia and No.

7 Notre Dame. The Bulldogs clinched the Southeastern Conference title and an automatic Sugar Bowl bid with a 31-21 victory over Auburn, but Georgia had to await the winner of the Notre Dame-Alabama struggle to determine its opponent. The Irish, eight-point underdogs in Birmingham, gave Georgia plenty to think about with a startling 7-0 shutout of the fifth-rated Tide. Quarterback Buck Belue passed for one TD, ran for another and threw a key block on an 18-yard TD scamper by Herschel Walker to spark Georgia, 10-0. Walker, the freshman sensation who leads the SEC in rushing, was limited to 77 yards on 27 carries.

"Belue was the hero today with his running ability," said Georgia coach Vince Dooley. "I don't think Auburn came into the game looking for him. They really came after Herschel. They hit Herschel well and they hit him hard and Buck Belue had to deliver." Notre Dame, 8-0-1, capitalized on the second of two fumble recoveries within the shadow of the Alabama goal to score on sophomore Phil Carter's 2-yard leap into the end zone. Alabama, 8-2, which suffered its second loss in three weeks, will play in the Cotton Bowl against No.

10 Baylor. "I don't know what it looked like from the stands," said Notre Dame coach Dan Devine, "but on the field it was what college football is all about. I felt good about this game. I predicted Tuesday we were going to win. I just had a feeling.

You have to take a positive attitude and I knew we'd play well against Alabama." In other major bowl berths determined Saturday, 20th-rated Washington clinched the Pac-10 championship and a Rose Bowl berth with a 20-10 triumph over No. 2 Southern Cal. The Huskies will face the Big Ten champion, to be decided next week when No. 6 Ohio State takes on No. 12 Michigan.

In the Orange Bowl, idle No. 4 Florida State will take on the Big Eight champion, determined next week in a showdown between No. 3 Nebraska and No. 11 Oklahoma. Navy takes on Houston in the Garden State Bowl, Southern Methodist will face the Western Athletic Conference champion in the Holiday Bowl and Maryland is assured of a Tangerine Bowl berth against Florida.

The loser of the Ohio State- Michigan duel will challenge No. 9 Penn State in the Fiesta Bowl and the loser of the Big Eight showdown takes on No. 17 Mississippi State in the Sun Bowl. Purdue and Missouri will clash in the Liberty Bowi and No. 14 South Carolina earned a Gator Bowl berth against No.

8 Pittsburgh. In the Bluebonnet Bowl, No. 15 North Carolina will oppose No. 19 Texas and Virginia Tech is assured a spot in the Peach Bowl. Ray Horton's 73-yard TD run on a punt return sparked Washington to its upset victory that snapped the Trojans' unbeaten streak at 28 games.

The Huskies, who intercepted four passes and recovered four fumbles, withstood a 216-yard rushing performance by USC tailback Marcus Allen, who also threw a pass for the Trojans' only touchdown. Jeff Quinn ran for two TDs and passed for a third score to pace Nebraska past fumble-prone Iowa State 35-0..