The Kansas City Star from Kansas City, Missouri • 187

4 SDVRSPCRIS Missouri prevails in Tangerine Bowl iv i Four field goals stout defense lead to 19-17 triumph 7 ByRichSambol sportswrtt JoeMcGuff Tht Star's apotla editor Orlando Bob field-goal kicking and a defense that enveloped quarterback Reggie Collier presented the Missouri Tigers with a 19-17 victory Saturday night over Southern Mississippi in the Tangerine Bowl Lucchesi a sophomore walk-on from Colorado Springs Colo made all four of his attempts connecting from 45 41 30 and 28 yards He tied the Missouri school record and Tangerine Bowl mark for most field goals in a game While Lucchesi did his part defense wearheaded by All-America tackle Jeff Gaylord put the clamps on Collier the first quarterback in major-college history to gain 1000 yards in rushing and passing in a single season Collier gained ouly 16 yards rushing and 54 through the air He carried 20 times and was five of 17 passing thought our football team was very well prepared in all offensive! defensively and the ki Missouri Coach Warren Powers Our defense thrives on a challenge Mississippi is a good tough football team We had to put some heat on Collier and I think our blitzes had him concerned It was very important to keep him See Missouri pg 2 col 3 (staff photo by Tangerine Bowl game Saturday night Dan White) Missouri quarterback Brad Perry wears heavy mitts on the sideline to keep his hands warm during the Comeback bid dies in Phoenix Kings fall to 2-1 1 on road BySidBordman his previous games made two straight jump shots After Dennis Johnson drove and lumped for a basket Kramer moved inside on a feed from Dennis Johnson to throw the Kings behind 84-74 and Kelley gave us big said Phoenix Coach John MacLeod got on the boards and we did a good job defensively The Kings did a heck of a job they controlled the tempo and got the ball inside You have to give Cotton credit His starting lineup is 60 percent The Suns winning their second straight game also slowed the Kings' attack with five blocked shots The Kings the line for Kansas City Kings Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons had few positive things to say about his club which began this three-game road trip with two consecutive victories disappointed very Fitzsimmons said thought the best team won tonight The team that played the hardest won I know we have a young team but a young team never should get outhustled We could have played harder rebounded harder" Tne Suns who lost to the Kings 97-81 last Wednesday night in Kansas City won the battle of the backboards 48-27 as 6-10 forward Jeff Cook picked off 14 and 6-4 guard Dennis Johnson eight Johnson who fouled out with 2:50 to play also had 25points Rookie Steve Johnson led the Kings on the backboards with nine rebounds But Cliff Robinson and Reggie King had poor nights with only four and two gotta give Rich Kelley and Jeff Cook Fitzsimmons said played Kelley starting in place of injured Al-van Adams at center had 10 points seven rebounds and seven assists Joel Kramer usually the third-string center and sometimes forward scored only nine points But six of the points helped stymie the Kings who closed to 76-74 four minutes into the last quarter on Steve hook shot Kramer who had averaged 26 points in Phoenix The Kings still are stumbling on the road Seizing control of the back-boards Phoenix blunted several second-half drives and claimed a 95-87 victory before a crowd of 11257 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum The Kings now 2-11 in games away from home-sweet-Kemper Arena made their final charge in the fourth quarter closing the gap to 91-87 on Steve free throw with 1 minute 14 seconds remaining But Kyle Macy taking a pass on the baseline from center Rich Kelley scored and that was the end of Avalanche comes down on Comets See Kings pg 12 col 1 Hoosiers able to overcome K' nine-point lead MU needs top and gets it Orlando Bowl trips pleasant though they may be would appear to have only limited educational value for college football teams but the time the Missouri Tigers spent in Orlando clearly was put to profitable use In the course of tneir stay here the Tigers have been exposed to the visual and commercial wonders of Disney World they have observed marine life at Sea World they have experienced a Florida cold wave and they learned to be wary of teams with such innocuous sound-ingnames as Southern Mississippi They put this latter lesson to good use Saturday night in the frosty setting of the Tangerine Bowl where they played one of their finest defensive games of the year to defeat Southern Mississippi 19-17 The game was expected to be a struggle between two exceptional defenses and it proved to be just that Southern Mississippi which came into the game with a 9-1-1 record led the nation in scoring defense allowing opponents an average of 81 points a game The Golden Eagles were fifth in total defense Although Missouri scored 19 points 12 of them came on four field goals by Bob Lucchesi only touchdown came on a 52-yard drive in the first quarter Missouri which ranked seventh nationally in total defense yielded two touchdowns but one of them came on a 74-yard pass with 1 minute 3 seconds left in the game and the other was set up by a 30-yard interception return to the MU 8 The Missouri players unhappy with their season-ending loss to Kansas looked on their Tangerine Bowl appearance as an opportunity to end the season on a positive note and they took full advantage of it Southern Mississippi's offense is built around its versatile quarterback Reggie Collier but he was pressuredby the Missouri defense and reduced to a state of hesitant ineffectiveness He completed only five of 17 passes for 54 yards and rushed 20 times for 16 When Southern Mississippi routed Florida State this season one of the Florida State players described Collier by saying a daddy longlegs with six gears in his Saturday night the Tigers kept him in neutral Jeff Gaylord All-America tackle was especially effective in dealing with Collier and was named the outstanding player of the game Coming into the game Missouri was concerned about controlling the ball enough to prevent Collier from having too many offensive opportunities but as it turned out the Missouri defense was capable of taking care of itself Collier had gained 1005 yards rushing and 1004 passing coming into the game Southern Mississippi looked on its Tangerine Bowl meeting with Mis-soun as an opportunity to improve its reputation Despite the loss Southern Mississippi has proved that it is in the big-college class competitively Southern success has raised questions as to how a relatively small school from Hattiesburg could become good enough to play on a level with powers from the Southeastern Conference Samller schools that suddenly become winners often turn out to be so-called bandit schools but there are no whispers about Southern recruiting The architect of the Golden success is their coach Bobby Collins who looks more like a smalltown businessman than he does like a coach He is not slick like Barry Switzer or Vince Dooley and he does not have an imposing presence Collins has recruited close to home He has played on the pride of Southern Mississippi alumni and the residents of Hattiesburg sle used to kind of hide By Steve Richardson By Randy Covitz spoctswritBf on Kansas basket- pushed loomir Wildcat 28-25 lead at halftime and held a 34-25 lead with 18 minutes 51 seconds left in the game after scoring the first six points of the second half But Indiana 6-1 was far from finished The Hoosiers may not have the same firepower of a year ago when Isiah Thomas now with the Detroit Pistons was the darling at guard And they miss center Landon Turner who was paralyzed in a car accident and forward Ray Tolbert now with the Seattle SuperSonics However they still got the crowd going and Kansas State stopped thought we got off to such a good start in the second said Kansas State forward Randy Reed were makingthe shots and playing good defense Then the crowd got into it They See K-State pg 10 col 1 ball tradition out of their minds for 21 minutes Saturday Then the Wildcats found out where they Big Red country on the basketball court Indiana ranked 13th in the country and the defending NCAA champion rallied for a 58-49 victory before 15502 vociferous fans and a half-the-country television audience This was Kansas big chance to make a national and it nearly did Instead the Wildcats got a second straight defeat on the road against a Big Ten team Earlier Kansas Sate lost 55-49 to Illinois normally rowdy crowd was stunned early Kansas State 5-2 had a JohnSchuerholz On the inside Nine baseball owners tell Bowie Kuhn he get their support Page 2 Elon defeats Pittsburg 3-0 in NAIA championship game Page 3 Whatever happened to Page 3 Villanova the No 18 college basketball team is upset Page 4 John Schuerholz becomes the general manager Sunday Extra page 15 Miami and the New York Giants win key NFL games Page 16 KU fails to stop Koncak but handles SMU 81-71 The honeymoon is about over for the Kansas City Comets Facing a team they are going to have to master if they expect to contend for a playoff berth in the Major Indoor Soccer League the Comets stumbled their wav through three periods Saturday night before showing some life in a 7-5 loss to the Denver Avalanche at Kemper Arena The defeat was Kansas fourth straight And for the fourth straight home game the attendance this time to 8479 "We all felt going into this game it was about time we started pulling things out" said Comets forward Artie Kramer who scored two goals and had an assist we do the job At first we had sellout crowds then for New York last week we had less and tonight even less We have to turn it around drastically at Wichita before we play Phoenix here on Wednesday if we want the crowds to keep coming out The Comets now 2-6 will play a 6:05 game tonight at Wichita 2-5 The loser will sink to the bottom of the Western Division along with Phoenix 2-6 Denver paced by four goals by Charlie Carey is now 5-4 Carey scored the two goals in the second quarter and after Kramer scored his third goal of the season in the first minute of the third quarter making it 3-1 Carey got the hat trick and pushed the Avalanche to a 4-1 lead Just when the Comets made it close on a power-play goal by Kramer with second left in the third quarter and a goal by Val DeSouza midway through the fourth period Carey gave the Avalanche a cushion with his fourth goal of the game By Mike Fish But Koncak who last spring narrowed his college choice to SMU or Kansas save the Mustangs from defeat Southern Methodist led only once in the game and trailed by 21 points with four minutes remaining when Owens emptied his bench Senior guard Tony Guy set the pace for another solid offensive showing with some spectacular outside shooting late in the first half The shooting of Guy coupled with Owens' switch to an aggressive man-to-man defense broke open the game and gave Kansas a 36-25 halftime bulge At one point in the final four minutes of the half Kansas scored 10 str ijht points The Jayhawks continued to have success with the man-to-man defense early in the second half See Kansas pg 11 col 5 Shortly after the University of Kansas had defeated Southern Methodist 81-71 at Allen Field House Saturday night Kansas Coach Ted Owens was asked what he could say positive about the losers After pausing for a moment Owens offered praise for SMU freshman center Jon Koncak "Jon Koncak did a fine Owens said of the former Center High School standout react well They were able to get the ball inside and he did the He far from the truth Koncak was a one-man wrecking crew scoring a season-high 25 points and showing muscle under the boards as he pulled down 12 rebounds making il TTiecoi it 5-3 rnets could come no closer See Comets pg 13 col 1 quite done but Chiefs and Vikings are when they By Kent Pulliam about football in Collins said they stand up on a chair Tne Southern Mississippi fans three years Both teams have additional incentives The incentive for the Chiefs is to continue struggling upward The team has had a better record every year Marv Levy has coached including an 8-8 season in 1980 The Vikings will be playing their last game at and they would like nothing better than to close their home for 21 years with a victory are in the same situation and professional pride will motivate both the Chiefs will go into the game without most of their offensive weapons Rookie running back Joe Delaney has fractured ribs and is not likely to play if any Wide receiver JT Smith the Chiefs leading receiver with 58 catches probably will not start He may not be able to return punts either Henry Mar shall the best wide receiver Scill is sidelined with strained knee liga ments The Vikings also will not be starting their leading rusher or receiver That is Ted on both counts He has car- eliminated from the playoffs last week and the slim playoff chances ended Saturday when the New York Giants beat the Dallas Rogers once told me" Levy said with a laugh early this week time for countin' is when the dealin's don't view the Minnesota game as anything antidimactic I view it as finishing up the season I view it as a game of diminished importance because we are out of the playoffs The Chiefs 8-7 will be fighting to rise above the mediocrity implied by the 500 record that a sixth loss in eight weeks would give them Minnesota 7-8 is trying to avoid its second losing season in lopmington To listen to Minnesota Coach Bud Grant or Kansas Marv Levy ame is as important as any their foot-all teams have played all year let anyone kid you talking ikingsga in Metropolitan Stadium simply very important when it is compared with the games each team has played the last couple of weeks Those were playoff ar at least games that determined whether there would be any playoff games However the Chiefs were 10000 in number were optimistic that the Golden Eagles would add Missouri to the list of giants they have felled but Missouri's defense was too quick and too strong is a challenge we like to get" Gaylord said of the Tigers' success in stopping Colllier who runs the 40-yard dash in 44 proud of everybody A lot of guys came through The best way to stop speed is with said second-year tight end Joe second-le here a long time wfnHo finish things up right don't think it will be hard for either team to prepare to play this game We See Chiefs pg 16 col 5.