The Greenville News from Greenville, South Carolina • Page 35

JL SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1991 FOOTBALL BASKETBALL SECTION falloo cpairiiS thi A --f- Dan Foster tome ffoir Fuirman, 19-17 Tigers' magic number is one CHAPEL HILL Before Clem- Furman loses Swilling for at least four weeks with broken hand; statistics, Page 6C. son's football team even took the field in Kenan Stadium Saturday night, it had seen the Atlantic Coast Conference championship and the Citrus Bowl bid that goes with it take a large and friendly step in its direction. That's because N.C. State lost to Virginia Saturday 1 afternoon. By Tim Peeler News staff writer ATLANTA A minute and 41 seconds away from slaying another giant, Furman had the rock slip out of its slingshot and fall onto the turf of Georgia Tech's Grant Field.

And not long after Scott Sisson kicked a 37-yard field goal to give the defending I-A national champions a 19-17 lead over the I-AA and the eventual victory the Paladins had an even more devastating blow, the loss of sophomore quarterback Hugh Swilling on the next-to-last play of the disappointing defeat to the defending United Press International national champions. "We came down here to expecting to win," said Paladin tight end Paul Siffri, one of the many Furman players from the state of Georgia trying to record a huge upset in his home state. "We're disappointed just like we were when we lost to Marshall or Appalachian State. More than half the team is from Georgia and to come down here and give them a good showing is See Furman, Page 6C v. game.

Swilling broke a bone in his right hand and will miss the next four to six weeks, according to trainer Bruce Getz, which means his season is over unless Furman goes deep into the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs. But the reality of that loss hadn't set for the Paladins as they slinked off the field after the Then, doing just what came nat urally, the Tigers pulled it another giant step with a 21-6 victory over the University of North Carolina. THE NEWS OWEN RILEY JR. Carl Tremble holds up the ball after scoring Furman's 2nd TD If, with all its rain and fumbles 6 by Clemson and 2 by the Tar Heels the second Saturday in November didn't seem especially distinctive, maybe it's better to take another look. In baseball terms, Clemson's magic number is down to one.

(Mr A Clemson victory in either of its "wwji lljJ1 4" -wim two remaining conference games, would guarantee the Tigers the ACC title and a Citrus Bowl spot, possibly opposite Perm State. If N.C. State had won Saturday, and kept winning, Clemson would have had to run the table as the pool players say beating North Carolina, Maryland and Duke to finish ahead of State. But Virginia routed N.C. State I it .11 42-10, said to be the most lopsided home loss of any of Dick Sheridan's six State team.

That left Clemson with four possible doors to the title, needing only one to embrace it. Both the games were played in miserable weather, with Clemson and UNC getting the worst of it. They played on a cold night in a re lentless drizzle the worst kind. More ticket holders stayed home than came to the the game. Trench victory An infantry soldier would have 'n vte5' loved the way Clemson won.

It won Clemson closes on ACC title with 21 -6 victory Statistics, Page IOC By Woody White News staff writer CHAPEL HILL, N.C. The results of a cold and rainy Saturday along Tobacco Road left the Clemson Tigers a win away from the Atlantic Coast Conference championship. The 15th-ranked Tigers defeated North Carolina 21-6 at Kenan Stadium Saturday night, hours after the Virginia Cavaliers had dashed North Carolina State's title hopes with a 42-10 win in Raleigh. The Tigers, 4-0-1 in the ACC and 6-1-1 overall, can clinch their first league title since 1988 and their 13th overall with a victory over Maryland next Saturday at Death Valley. North Carolina, which has lost to the Tigers the last six years and 10 times in the last 11, fell to 5-4 overall and 2-4 in the conference.

Quarterback DeChane Cameron was Clemson's brightest star on a night so miserable that the stadium was about half filled (31,000 attended) despite a sellout months in advance. The temperature was 38 degrees at kickoff, and much of the game was played in a driving rain. Cameron, the senior from La-Grange, scored the Tigers' first touchdown on a 41-yard counter option run and set up Clemson's third score with a 48-yard pass to wide receiver Terry See Tigers, Page 1 3C Iff 1 i Ji A. fc jr it imr-. mainly on strength, seeing who would survive, blocking and tackling in the rain and the mud.

Taking a look at the weather, and their own muscles, it appeared for most of the game that the Tigers were going to stick to their favorite formula. That's the one where they don't do much but you don't do nothin'. Lackluster as it seems, "not much" beats nothing every time. That vaunted Clemson defense the Kirklands, Buckners, Bod-ines, McGlocktons, McDaniels, Mouzons, Stephenses, Jacksons and their pals just kept stuffing the Tar Heels' offense, drying their hands between defensive stands and figuring sooner or later their team-mmates would get a touchdown. That was all they asked, and, as it turned out, all they needed.

But DeChane Cameron and his pals gave them more. Cameron had 124 yards on the ground, 5 of 10 pass attempts completed in instrument weather. The second quarter was symbolic of the whole game. That's when Clemson took a 7-0 lead on a 41-yard touchdown run by Cameron. It's also when the Tar Heels recovered a Clemson fumble at the Clemson 11.

But Clemson's defense dug in. The four-play UNC log read one yard gain, zero gain, quarterback sacked (by Brentson Buckner) for a 13-yard loss, and, finally, a missed field goal. The Heels fell on another Clemson fumble at the Tigers' 21 in the third quarter, milked three points 'f-fWrtW THE NEWS BART BOATWBIQHT Stacy )5eegars (79) celebrates as Rudy Harris (40) Is mobbed after scoring Clemson's second touchdown if Vols shock Irish FSU swamps Carolina with numbers, 38-1 0 4 1 1 f'V from that, and cut the Clemson lead Li -7 A. CtV to 7-6 with another field goal midway of that period. Concerned after the Heels cut their lead to 7-6, the Tigers didn't let the Heels touch the ball for seven minutes.

The next time the Heels did touch it, they were 14-6 behind. Four more minutes and they were down 21-6, and defeated. Scouts gathered Saturday's results will save some bowls long distance phone calls to Clemson. The prospect of a down-to-the wire race for the title possibly extending to the Dec. 1 Duke-Clem-son game in Tokyo brought a big Presbyterian wins third game; S.C.

State survives Charleston Southern, 12-0; Newberry falls to Elon; Page 2C. Marshall comes back to beat The Citadel, Page 3C. Miarrl sets up showdown with Seminoles by beating West Virginia, Page 4C. Virginia bludgeons N.C. State, Page 5C.

NFL, Page7C. High schools, Pages 8C, 9C. Outdoors, Page 12C. NBA, Page13C. fca SOUTH BEND, Ind.

(AP) Notre Dame, king of the miracle comeback, got a taste of its own medicine Saturday. Andy Kelly and Aaron Hayden helped 13th-ranked Tennessee overcome a 24-point deficit and beat the fifth-ranked Irish 35-34 when walk-on kicker Rob Leonard missed a 27-yard field goal as time ran out. Leonard was called in to attempt his first career field goal after Notre Dame's standout Craig Hentrich, injured his right leg earlier in the game. But the sophomore's kick glanced off the backside of Tennessee's Jeremy Lincoln and sailed wide to the right, ending slim Irish hopes for a national championship. "Whenever I go home, my mom teases me about my big butt," said Lincoln, a senior defensive back.

"Today, that big butt paid off for us." Tennessee (6-2) had taken its first and only lead with 4:03 left when Kelly threw a 26-yard See Vols, Page 6C Statistics, Page 10C By Abe Hardesty News staff writer TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Ce- dric Bembery, weary but not demoralized, leaned against a wall late Saturday and reflected on South Carolina's duel with top-ranked Florida State. "It was like we had to make the perfect play each time," said Bembery. "Any time we made a mistake, they took advantage of it and hurt us." Against a Carolina team that showed marked improvement over the previous week, Florida State made few mistakes in its workmanlike 38-10 triumph, hurting USC often with its wealth of speed. The Seminoles (1(H)), used that speed to run away from USC in the second half, sealing their 16th straight win with a pair of long third-quarter scoring drives that broke open a 17-10 game.

"The third quarter was the difference," said USC coach Sparky Woods. "We knew the second half would be more of a struggle roster of bowl scouts to Raleigh and I I rs 4. 'T Chapel Hill. Now the Tigers could close it out with a victory over Maryland Saturday at Clemson. Because of its relationship with the ACC, the Florida Citrus Bowl had delegates at both Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

Farther north, Citrus executive director Chuck Rohe was than the first because of the fatigue factor. They have a lot of depth, and it showed. "At the half, we felt about like we did at the beginning of the game we knew it wouldn't be easy, but it was a possibility," said Woods. For USC, a four-touclylown See USC, Page 5C a 1j ni -J scouting the Penn State-Maryland game. Penn State apparently is the top current pick of the Citrus to THE ASSOCIATED PRESS oppose the ACQ.champion New Bobby Fuller is taken down by Sterling Palmer (56) as Lonnie Johnson (85) moves In Year Day..