The Santa Fe New Mexican from Santa Fe, New Mexico • 7

0 NHxftuEXlCAN Santa Fe, N.M., Friday, December 30, 1988 57-55 Kelly Richmond thatswhat won it for us." -The Demons, now 5-2, advance to play Guthrie today at 3:15 p.m. in the tournaments fifth-place game. Guthrie beat Los Alamos 60-54 Thursday. Roswell Goddard 74, SL Michael's 42 A second-quarter collapse sealed St. Mikes fate as' defending state champion Goddard romped past the Horsemen Thursday in a consolation game at the Stu Clark Invitational in Las Venas.

"We were awfui said St. Mike's Coach Elmer Chavez. "As long as we stay ahead, we're'OK, but when we get behind we fold. We play on emotion once we get behind, forgrt it. The Horsemen were down by just one, 16-15, after the opening period, but a 21-2 spurt by the Rockets put Goddard ahead 37-17 at the intermission and brought in the St.

Mike's substitutes, who played most of the second half. "We kept looking fra someone to play with intensity, Chavez said, Joe Abeyta led the Horsemen with 10 points and Sean Bujnosek tossed in eight as St. Mike's fell to 45 on the season. Goddard's Tom McKnight was the games high scorer with 15, Steve Damron added 14 and Mike Shaw for 10. "We were just awful, but it's no big deal this ain't district," Chavez That's why we play these kinds of teams.

When we start district next week, we'll be 0-0 and everyone else will be 0-0. SL Mike's will face Moriarty at 1 p.m. today in the seventh-place game. Tony Valencia scored 30 points to lead Socorro over Moriarty 7352 Thursday. Socorro and Goddard will square off today at 3 p.m.

for fifth place. The Horsemen won an earlier contest I See Demons on Page B-2 there it was back and forth," Whittemore said. The Demons trailed 5554 with 21 seconds to play when Marc Gallegos hit a jump shot to put the Demons ahead fay one. Gallegos scored 18 points and grabbed 10 rebounds. Altus brought the ball down court with a chance to win, but threw the ball out of bounds and was forced to foul Carl Marano with five seconds remaining.

Marano hit the first half iff the one-and-one and time ran out- Sean Herrera scored 18 for the Demons and Paul Reed paced Altus with 19. Gallegos and Chuck Rudolph scored fora apiece and Marano added five points in the decisive final quarter. played good defense," Whittemore said. "We wert aJittle ragged offensively not real sharp like we'd like to be, but we played real good defense today, and I think The New Mexican Staff The Santa Fe Demons almost let their game against Altus, get away from them Thursday, but they rallied in the final seconds to pull off. a 57-55 win in a Hobbs Holiday Invitational tournament consolation game.

Santa Fe sprinted to a 30-21 halftime lead and went ahead 36-25 in the third period, but the game was far from over at that point, and Aftusjcnew it A'tus scored 17 unanswered points to erase the deficit and take a 42-36 lead. "They went to a half-court trap," said Demons -assistant Coach Randy Whit-temore. "They made 'some steals and we just had a lot of bad passes and they took advantage. Altus outscored Santa Fe 23-10 in the third quarter and the Demons were down 44-40 heading into the final period. "We kind of caught up to them and from AP tabs Ditka Coach of Year i The Associated Press SUWANEE, Ga.

Mike Ditka, who survived a midseason heart attack and a decade's wrath of injuries to his Chicago Bears in a single season, Thursday was named Coach of the Year by The Associated Press. "It's a great honor. I appreciate it," said Ditka, who was at the Atlanta Falcons training center, where the Bears have been practicing for Saturday's playoff game against the Philadelphia Eagles in Chicago. Ditka's Bears went 12-4 and won their fifth straight NFC Central title despite the pileup of injuries and other setbacks. "The Mg thing is, he's held this team together under all this adversity and were playing for the championship, said defensive coordinator Vince Tobin.

In winning the balloting by sprats writers covering the NFL, Ditka received 33 votes. Marv Levy of the Buffalo Bills was second with 23, while Sam Wyche of the Cincinnati Bengals was third with 19. Ditka had to plug holes all his lineup. Walter Payton and Gary Fencik had retired, Wilber Marshall was lost to See Ditka on Page B-2 File Photo Bears to their fifth Chicago Bears head Coach Mika Ditka, shown here in November after his mild heart attack, Thursday was named the NFL's Coach of the Year for taking the straight NFC Central Division championship, Tis the season to gripe about lots, of things The problem with Christinas is that you're expected to be jolly. And griping and groaning and saying nasty things -about various things that tick you off is not generally considered jolly.

But now that Christmas is over, I guess it's safe to bring out a few pet peeves and give the little rascals some exercise. For starters, there's the The Supreme Court ruled a few weeks back that the NCAA is not a governmental agency and therefore is not required to pay any attention whatsoever to constiutional rights. Great The organization that has absolute power to discipline (or destroy) entire athletic programs, to end coaches' careers and ruin young athletes futures can now 'feel free. to do pretty much whatever it If you're an athlete and the NCAA violates your constitutional rights, you have one option: quit. Give up your scholarship, give up your dreams' of a professional sports career and just go back you came from.

The NCAA doesn't need you. That sounds pretty fair, right? It's not like the NCAA has a long history of making really fair decisions. At the 1986 Orange Bowl, Oklahoma's Brian Bosworth was suspended from the biggest game of his life up to that point for taking steroids steroids that were apparently administered several months before the NCAA decided they were against the rules. (Bosworth retaliated by wearing a T-shirt to the game emblazoned with: NCAA: National Communists Against Then there was the case-two years ago of Indiana basketball player Steve Alford, posing for a fund-raising calendar, which turned out to be in violation of some obscure NCAA Kile. Alfords punishment for this heinous dime? He was suspended for one game.

The NCAA must have figured that would be enough to teach the little creep not to his time helping charities. Sounds fair, right? More there is the case of Texas-E1 Paso basketball player Francis Ezenwa. The NCAA has decided to end this young man's college career because he took a college-level course as a young teen-ager in his native Nigeria. Even though the Nigerian college involved says the course was college preparatory and that Ezenwa did not -receive college credit, the NCAA has decided that his eligibility is all used up. This sends a lovely message to young people: beware of academics taking the wrong class could end your sports career.

Ezenwa is being punished for being an ambitious student Pretty fair, right? The fact is that none of those cases was -fair. The NCAA administers its justice''so heavy-handedly, so capriciously, and with such little regard for common sense that NCAA rules" is quickly becoming an oxymoron. The television broadcasts of University of New Mexico basketball games have never been exactly top-notch. That's no surprise, really. After all, we are talking about local television in a fairly small city.

But, jeez, do they really have to be as -bad as they are? The games have been broadcast on KGSW, an independent Albuquerque station, for several years, but after viewing the Lobo Invitational games this week, one would think the station was doing its first' games and still hadnt gotten all the bugs out. There was an astounding lack of instant replays, and the replays that were shown were carefully timed so as to overlap with live action. The amount of time remaining in the game and the.score were secrets kept by announcers Jim Lawill and Jimmy Williams and shared only ocassionally with the viewers. Worst of all, there were no statistics. None.

Leading scorers, leading rebounders, number of successful 3-pointers and other useful tidbits were all mysteries. Following both the opening-round game against George Washington and the finals against Wake Forest, the audience waited in vain to find out who the leading scorers were. The announcers came back on the screen, traded quips and witticisms, and then went off the air, without imparting any information. Oh well, at least the Lobos didnt lose. I hate to sound too much tike Andy -Rooney here, "but did you ever notice that those programs sold at high school football and basketball games are serious ripoffs? In the grand scheme of things, ripoff programs don't rank up there with, say, world peace, bdt they're annoying nonetheless.

You shell out a dollar of your hard-earned money, for which you receive team rosters that may or may not be 'accurate, maybe a schedule or a team picture, and about 40 pages of paid advertising. What a bargain. Whew. I feel better after getting ail that off my chest. Happy holidays.

Kelly Richmond a eporUwriter for the New Mexican. Hie column appeare every Friday. Player Esiason also played a leading role in the -turmoil last season. As the team's uniqn representative, he led the Bengals' strike activities and traded harsh words with Wyche. He also bore the brunt of the fans dissatisfaction when the strike ended, hearing frequent jeers and calls for his backup, Turk Schonert.

While he became a lightning rod for the public dissatisfaction, Esiason apparently endeared himself with teammates. "He really, took a lot of the heat last year on himself rather than putting the pressure on his teammates to really have to staled up for themselves, Collinsworth said. And I think they really appreciated that this year. He Carrie into the season determined to heal the rifts. "I knew coming off last year, 1 was as much at fault as everybody else was, if not more, for our.downfall, Esiason said San Francisco, ho was named the leagues top offensive player.

Mike Singletary of Chicago, the defensive player of the year, had six votes and quarterback Warren Moon of Houston, defensive tackle Keith Millard of Minnesota and running back Herschel Walker of Dallas got one vote each. Esiasons personal statistics impressive but not record-setting 3,572 yards passing, 28 touchdowns, a 57 percent completion rate. Another statistic a better measure of his importance the Bengals' turnaround from 4-11 to 12-4. The left-handed quarterback played a major role iq turning the Bengajs into a team that believed it could win this year. "Boomer's attitude coming in was, We're going to win, and we're going to win because we're going to outplay some people, Coach Sam Wyche said.

1 think thats the mark of a Most Valuable Player." -The Associated Press CINCINNATI Boomer Esiason's value to the Cincinnati Bengals can't be measured by quarterback rankings. Thats why receiver Cris Collinsworth thinks- it's appropriate for Esiason to be named the NFLs Most Valuable Player. I dont think I've ever been around a more leader as a quarterback than what Boomer is," Collinsworth said. "And that probably is his biggest strength and. his biggest asset for our football team, especially after last year.

Esiason, the triggerman in the league's top-ranked offense, was named Thursday as the leagues MVP by The Associated Press. He won the award in a close three-way vote among sportswriters and broadcasters covering each of the NFL's 28 teams. Esiason had 31 votes to 21 for quarterback Randall Cunningham of Philadelphia and 17 fo? running back Roger Craig of Boomer I Named league's MVP Brigham Young edges Colorado 20-17 in Freedom 'A 1 Tift m' V- Gators top Illinois All American The Associated Prese I. BIRMINGHAM, Ala. Emmitt Smith scored on the game's first play and then rallied Florida to a late score as the Gators defeated Illinois 14-10 Thursday night in the Higgins had given Illinois its only lead with a 44-yard field goal.

With Florida's defense pressur-ing quarterback Jeff George; Owen Bartruff picked off a pass at the Illinois 26, setting up the Gators for The Associated Press ANAHEIM, Calif. Jason Chaffetz kicked a 35-yard field goal with 2:33 to play, lifting Brigham Young to a 20-17 victory over Colorado Thursday night in the fifth annual Freedom Bowl. Chaffetz, who tied the game with a 31-yarder with 4:11 to play, connected again after defensive back Scott Peterson intercepted backup quarterback Darian Hagan's pass at the Colorado 45 with 3:14 left. A personal foul on the return gave BYU the ball at Colorado's 32, and two carries by Matt Bellini gained -13 yards, setting up Chaffetz's game-winning kick. Colorado's Pat Blottiaux had kicked a 19-yard field goal with 11:19 left to give the Buffaloes a 17-14 lead Blottiauxs kick was set up on a fake field goal moments earlier.

Erich Kissick headed toward the sideline as if he Were trying to get off the field, then turned upfield and caught an 18-yard pass from holder Jeff Campbell Brigham Young redshirt freshman quarterback Ty Detmer replaced starter Sean Covey to start the second half and rallied the Cougars to a 14-14 tie. Detmer threw a 15-yard scoring pass to Chuck. Cutler with 4:46 left in the third quarter. The Cougars' got the ball when Colorado's Sal Aunese's long pass was picked off by Brian Mitchell at the BYU 35. After Blottiaux's field goal, Detmer led the Cougars from their 7-yard line to Colorado's 14 to set up the tying field goal.

Eric Bieniemy, the first Colorado runner to gain 1,000 yards since 1977, on a 1-yard dive just 2:30 into the game. -The drive was set up when linebacker Michael Jones sacked Covey, forced a fumble and recovered at the BYU 49. AH American Bowl winning touchdown. of the Southeastern Three plays later Smith, helped feirence, moved its record to 7-5, bjja block by quarterback Kyle while Illinois, of the Kg Ten, fell to 65-1. V- Smith, the game's most valuable player, ran for: 159 yards on 28 carries.

The sophomore's winning 2-yard run around right end came with 4:28 left, shortly after Doug Morris, ran 16 yards to the 2. He scored untouched on the next play. A Florida's Kerry Watkins returned the opening kickoff 29 yards to the Gators 45. On the first play from scrimmage, Smith broke dear over left tackle and raced 55 yards. tINTHE BLEACHERS GOOD MORNING Rocknes son may not ride with his ghost COLUMBUS, Ohio Notre Dame fans believe the ghost of Knute Rockne win be in Sun DevU Stadium Monday night when the top-ranked Fighting Irish meet No.

3 West Virginia in the Fiesta Bowl But the legendary coach's son may not be able to join him. Jack Rockne is still searching for tickets to the sold-out game. When Rockne and his son, John, asked Notre Dame officials for tickets, they were told they would have to enter a lottery. They tried that route, but didn't win. When NBC officials read about the Rocknes plight, they offered them two free tickets.

The network has access to tickets because it win televise the game. "It shocked me blew me right out of here," John Rockne said of the gift. The younger Rockne, who works fra an energy management company in Columbus, said he is giving the second ticket to a friend who is plying for their plane tickets to Phoenix. But he hasn't forgotten about his father. "There are several people down in Phoenix hunting tickets for me, so we can give them to he said.

SAY WHAT? "I was thinking about switching channels' Sacramento Kings coach Jerry Reynolds, who was hospitalized after collapsing during a game Tuesday, when asked what he was thinking about while watching the Kings on television as they lost 96-80 to Utah Wednesday. BELIEVE IT Lakers Riley to sign four-year contract LOS ANGELES Coach Pat Riley, who has guided the Los Angeles Lakers to two straight NBA championships, is expected to sign a four-year contract in the near future. As far as I know, hes reached an agreement," said Josh Rosenfeld, the Lakers director of public relations. "He has the contract for his review. That's all I know right now.

Riley, who has the highest winning percentage in NBA history, was quoted in the Los Angeles Tunes as saying he would sign the contract on Thursday. "I have it right here in my bag, and 1U sign it," Riley said. The contract reportedly will make Riley, 43, the second-highest paid coach in the NBA, behind first-year San Antonio coach Larry Brown..