Sports
University Daily Kansan / Monday, November 23, 1987
9
Kansas players Bryan Howard, offensive guard, and Bob Pieper, offensive tackle, hang their heads in a gesture of defeat during the last minutes of the Saturday.
'Hawks finish season with loss to MU
Bv CRAIG ANDERSON
COLUMBIA, Mo. — The end to the Kansas football season was basically a replay of past Jayhawk games, with a few adjustments of names and key plays. In the end, though, Saturday's 19-7 loss to Missouri was still a loss, as the Jayhawks put the caps on a 1-9 season.
Kansas' only win came against Division 1-AA Southern Illinois. The Jayhawks' tie came against Kansas State, a team that lost the other ten games on its schedule.
Kansas appeared to have gained momentum just before halftime against Missouri, as the Jayhawks blew down field on a 66-yard scoring drive in just 58 seconds. Sophomore quarterback Kelly Donohoe finished the drive by diving one yard for the Jayhawks first and only touchdown.
Missouri led 16-7 at halftime, but Kansas freshman linebacker Kyle Schenker said he thought momentum was wearing KU colors.
"We felt good going in at the half," said Schenker, who would finish the day with 16 tackles. "It looked like we had a chance to win."
As the second half unfolded, however, it became apparent that Kansas was doomed to play in its 14th straight Big Eight Conference game without a win. Kansas turnovers and a fierce Missouri pass rush helped seal the loss for the Jayhawks.
Kansas junior tailback Arnold
Snell's first of two fumbles set up
By a Kansan reporter
COLUMBIA, Mo — There wasn't a cloud in the sky Saturday above Farout Field when Kansas played Missouri, except maybe for the one hanging over Jayhawk football coach Bob Valesente.
Kansas athletic director Bob Frederick said nothing that would clear up rumors that have been circulating in the past few weeks about Valesente's future at Kansas. With a little less than three minutes left in the Jayhawks' 19-7 loss to the Tigers, Frederick and associate athletic director Gary Hunter moved quickly past a group of reporters and disappeared down a stairway.
There was no comment by Frederick and thus no end to the speculation on the status of Valesente, who is in the second year of a four-year contract with an estimated salary of $70,000 a year. During his two years as coach at Kansas, Valesente has established a 4-17 record.
After Saturday's game, Valesen teased he didn't have time to consider anything but remaining at Kansas next season. He said it would be business as usual today.
Missouri's first touchdown of the game — a one-yard run by halfback Darrrell Wallace in the second quarter.
Early in the third quarter, Snell fumbled deep in Missouri territory. He was redeemed somewhat three plays later when Tiger fullback Robert Delpino fumbled through the end zone to give the Jayhawks possession of the ball again. Snell said he couldn't explain why he had fumbled.
"I feel really bad because I had a part in the seniors that are leaving losing their last game," he said. "I can't go back next week and try to improve in practice. This game was it for us."
but he said he did know the significance of his errors.
45-yard field goal for the only points of the second half. For the game, Donohoe was sacked four times
Missouri was able to control the ball with its full-back-oriented wishbone offense. Tiger fullback Tommie Stowers rushed for 130 yards on 22 carries and scored one touchdown. Missouri had possession of the ball for a ground-gobbling 36 minutes.
In the third quarter, Donohoe was intercepted by Tiger safety Charles Murphy. On the ensuing drive, Missouri kicker Tom Whelihan kicked a
Stowers' success against the Jayhawks was just the latest in a string of opponents' running backs having big days against Kansas. Ten running backs rushed for over 100 yards against the Jayhawks this season.
The Kansas offense couldn't move the ball, the defense couldn't consistently stop the Tigers, and the rumors were flying about the future of the Jayhawk football program, but Kansas coach Bob Valese said he didn't see his players or coaches given up on or off the field.
Kansas junior Willie Vaughn, who caught one pass for 47 yards Saturday and finished the season with an average of 26.9 yards a catch on his 25 receptions, said the adversity the Kansas players and staff had gone through most of the season didn't affect the team play.
"We only thought about winning now," he said. "When you're winning, everyone's for you. When you're losing, everyone — the media, fans, everyone — is against you. There's nothing we could do about that. We just had to go out and play our game."
KU volleyball team reaches semifinals of Big Eight tourney
By ROBERT WHITMAN
Staff writer
SALINA — Judy Desch put some of the tremendous emotional weight she has been shouldering all season for the Kansas women's volleyball team into one last spike.
That spike was hit with enough force to ricochet off the Kansas State blockers at the net and go out-of bounds. It gave Kansas the game, and match in their victory over the Wildcats in the opening round of the Big Eight Conference tournament at the Bicentennial Center.
The ensuing celebration by the Jayhawks after their 15-7, 14-16, 16-14, 7-15, 15-12 victory Friday night was the type usually reserved for teams that have won some championship or another.
But for the Jayhawks, who had two losses to Kansas State earlier in the season, it was the celebration of accomplishment.
"I feel like a thousand pounds is off my shoulders," said Desch, a 5-foot-11 senior, after the Kansas State match. "So many times, we've been at game point and not won."
At least some of the extra weight on Desch's shoulders was put there by Kansas coach Frankie Albitz.
"If Judy is on, we do really well; if she's not, we don't do as well," Albitz said.
Kansas played Nebraska in the semifinals. but the Cornhuskers, ranked 0 in the country and the worst team by bite, crushed Kansas 15-4, 15-2, 15-4.
Oklahoma surprised the Huskers in the finals yesterday, 3-15, 13-15, 15-4, 15-6, to claim the Big Eight title and automatic NCAA tournament ben
The Jayhawks sent a mixed signal to rest of the conference teams with their tournament finish. Their tournament finish was the same as last year, a loss in the semifinals to tie for third place. Their 13-20 record, though, wasn't nearly as good as last year's 26-9 mark.
"I think it salvaigned our season because it equaled our finish of last season." Albiz said of the victory over Kansas State. "As far as the Big Eight is concerned, (before the Kansas State match) they didn't figure we were any good. Now they're confused."
Kansas fell behind 7- to Kansas State in the second game but rallied to tie 8-8. Desch served an ace later in the game to put Kansas ahead 14-13 but served wide of the court on game point, giving the Wildcats a break. Kansas won the game 16-14.
Things almost fell apart for the Jayhawks in the third game. Kansas State led 14-10 and was serving when Kyle Austin Martin Martin put her serve in the net.
Kansas cut the deficit to 14-13 when Desch and Elisa Woods blocked Shawnee Call's spike, Kansas State made a bad pass, and Kansas State outside hitter Valerie Kastens missed snaking a set.
Mary Kinsey's spike and kill gave the same to save Kansas the serve.
Desch then dinked over the Wildcat block tying the score 14-14 and recorded one of her 22 kills in the game with a spike, putting Kansas ahead.
After the teams traded one sideeat each, the Wildcats were unable to return a serve by Kansas' Jodl Oelsi victory and a two-games to one lead.
Kansas State easily won the fourth game. In the fifth game, Kansas led most of the way and was ahead 14-10. Kansas State didn't die easily, getting two more points before Desch's spike gave Kansas the match.
"I think KU played really well," Kansas State coach Scott Nelson said. "We really didn't serve very well, so we didn't put a lot of pressure on them. I'd be surprised if we had under 30 service errors."
The Wildcats had 24 service errors, but it was still well above the 14.9 service errors they averaged coming into the tournament. Kristi Jacquart, who was fourth in the nation in service aces coming into the tournament, had no aces and four service errors against KU.
Against Nebraska in the semifinals, the Jayhawks ran up against a good team that played well.
"We were as ready as we could be," Albitz said. "I told them (the Kansas players) before the match that we thought we could win and they (Nebraska) knew they could win, so just go out there and play ball and don't worry about the score."
Chiefs lose to Packers
The Associated Press
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Randy Wright relieved an ineffective Don Majkowski and threw two second-half touchdown passes to Frankie Neal that helped Green Bay to a 23-3 victory over Kansas City yesterday and staggered the Chiefs with their ninth straight loss.
Majowski, a rookie who started while Wright nursed an injured ankle, hit only two of 11 passes in the first half. Wright threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Neal following a
missed Kansas City field goal in the third period and added a 26-yard scoring strike to the rookie wide receiver 55 seconds later when the Chiefs, 1-9, fumbled the kickoff.
The Packers, 4-5-1, snapped a three-game losing string as the Chiefs, with the National Football League's worst record, extended their franchise-record losing streak. Kansas City has not won since opening day. Their offense has not scored a touchdown in 13 quarters, going back to the third period of their Nov. 1 game against Chicago.
KU women's basketball team annihilates Wales team 93-31
By ELAINE SUNG
Special to the Kansan
To put it mildly, it was an overwhelming victory. But Saturday night's unofficial season-opener against the Wales National team gave the Kansas women's basketball team a chance to work out the kinks before starting the two-day Lady Jayhawk Dial Classic from November 27-28.
That the Jayhawks won 93-31 was second in importance to Kansas coach Marian Washington. She was more concerned about looking at different combinations to detect holes in strategy or lineup.
"I was very pleased with most of their efforts, but there are some playing areas I know we're going to have to work on." Washington said. "I noticed higher intensity levels with certain combinations in the lineup, which I was trying to chart. We'll have to be more aggressive rebounders and spend more time working on the intensity of the line of our defense."
She said she was plasped with the performances of some of the perimeter players, particularly 5-foot-7 guard Lisa Braddy, and 5-8 forward Mesho Strughetr.
Braddy was top scorer with 19 points and eight assists, while Stroughter went 5-for-8 from the field for 10 points and had seven rebounds.
Braddy said she thought the team had played well and agreed that it needed to work on defense. On the other hand, she said, she had expected more from the Welsh team.
The score only hinted at the game went. The game was punctuated by a total of 48 turnovers, 34 of them committed by Wales. Players were constantly running back and forth on the court.
The pace of the game was also slowed by a large number of fouls, with each team committing 20.
"I thought they would be better," she said.
"It got kind of old." said senior forward Jackie Martin. "I think our guards had control. But there were a lot of fouls not called. They tried to let us play the game."
The Jayhawks did just that, building a comfort able 11-2 four minutes into the first half.
Jump shots by Wales guard Denise James and center Pam Walker ended their scoring drought, but Kansas stopped them with a seven-point run, with a little more than two minutes of play.
Kansas took over the last nine inutes of the half,
building a 45-14 lead by halftime.
But two minutes later, Kansas' Braddy made a spectacular save to keep the ball in-bounds, passing it to Stroughter. Stroughter tossed a blind, behind-the-back pass to senior guard Lisa Dougherty, who went in for an easy layup to make the score 47-16.
Another Wales scoring dreadst last more than eight minutes. In that time, Kansas scored 24 points, led by Brady who scored 10 points and drove the ball inside to put the Jayhawks at 71-18.
Wales forward Angela Matthews sank the first basket in the beginning of the second half.
Wales tried to come back following the Kansas scoring barrage, first with a 24-foot three-pointer by James. The NCAA installed the three-point rule in women's basketball for the first time this year.
While Kansas did not even attempt a three-point shot, the Wales team took advantage of the new rules and scored 10.
Wales center Julie Keating was fouled by Kansas players four times in the last four minutes of the game. Kansas answered each foul with a 10-4 pass. Daughter and 2-5 freshman guard Karen Morgan.
With 2:05 on the clock, Page landed a short baseline jump shot. Wales followed with its last basket of the game, a layup by guard Helen Barry.
Lynn Page finished her night with another jump shot, taking a pass under the basket from guard Michelle Arnold with a little over a minute left in the game.
Page sank five out of seven free throws, grabbed six rebounds and scored a total of 13 points last night.
Braddy scored the last two Kansas points. After stealing a Wales pass in the last 10 seconds, she ran down the middle on a fast break for an unassisted layup.
Dan Ruettimann/KANSAM
Kansas forward Lisa Dougherty takes a shot over Wales national team defender Denise James.
Knight admits error in pulling his team from Soviet game
The Associated Press
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Coach Bob Knight, embroiled in another incident caused by his uncontrollable temper, admitted he was wrong in ordering his team to forfeit its exhibition basketball game to the Soviet Union.
The show was to be broadcast by WTTV and other Indiana stations last night. Knight allowed Bob Hammel, sports editor of The Herald-Telephone in Bloomington, to attend the taping. Hammel's report on the program was published in yesterday's editions of the newspaper.
Knight pulled the Hoissiers off the floor with
the aid of a ladder. He was beaten
repeatedly following his third technical tool.
The Sovietis, helped by six free throws following the three technicals against Knight, were leading 66-43 when the Hoosiers followed their coach into the dressing room. Knight refused to be interviewed after the game or make his players available for interviews. The Soviet team and coach also declined comment.
"I apologize to our fans for what should have been a good evening . . . a chance to see our players play." Knight said in remarks taped after the game.
"I had said publicly that winning the game wasn't important to me," Knight said during his show. "I didn't think it was a game we could have won under any circumstances. I think the Russians played much better than we did.
"As far as taking the team off the floor — there are things I wish I could do over again. That is one of them."
Knight, convicted of hitting a Puerto Rico policeman during an incident at the 1979 Pan American Games and disciplined after throwing a chair onto the floor at a Purdue-Indiana game during the 1984-85 season, explained that the latest incident began over a rule interpretation.
"I'm not sure that even people who saw it (the incident) would understand, but I'll be glad to try to explain." Knight said. "I don't think I was right in what I did."