SOUTHWEST ROUNDUP : Houston Rallies Late to Beat Texas A

Chuck Weatherspoon scored his second touchdown, a one-yard dive with 20 seconds remaining, as 12th-ranked Houston rallied to a 36-31 victory over 20th-ranked Texas A&M; in a Southwest Conference game Saturday night at Houston.

Houston, 5-0 overall and 4-0 the SWC, extended its winning streak to nine games and ended a string of five consecutive losses to the Aggies (4-2, 1-1).

The Cougars, who fell behind 17-0 in the first quarter, took full advantage of Kenny Perry’s interception of Bucky Richardson’s pass at the Houston five-yard line with 5:12 left.

Weatherspoon keyed the winning drive with a 30-yard run to the Cougar 36, and David Klingler completed a 41-yard pass to Verlond Brown to the Aggies’ 41.

Klingler completed a pass to Patrick Cooper for 22 yards to the three on third and 15, and three plays later Weatherspoon scored the game-winner.

Darren Lewis, the nation’s No. 5 rusher, scored his fourth touchdown on a 12-yard run with 14:31 to play in giving Texas A&M; its last lead. Lewis also scored on runs of 47, nine and four yards.

Lewis, with 124 yards in 21 carries, moved into third place on the SWC career rushing list with 4,098 yards. Robert Wilson added 113 yards in 16 carries for the Aggies.

After Lewis’ go-ahead touchdown, Roman Anderson kicked a 34-yard field goal, his third of the game, cutting the Aggies’ lead to one point.

Richardson, starting his first game this season at quarterback, directed Texas A&M; to a 24-17 halftime lead.

But the Aggies weren’t able to deliver a knockout blow and three consecutive turnovers cost them the lead in the third quarter.

The Cougars pulled even with 10:37 left in the third on Klingler’s one-yard sneak on fourth down from three inches out. It was Houston’s fourth consecutive fourth down conversion and the second for a touchdown.

Texas Tech 49, Arkansas 44--Jamie Gill deflated Arkansas with two long touchdown passes, and the Red Raiders withstood a frantic Quinn Grovey-led rally for a victory over the the Razorbacks at Fayettteville, Ark.

The Raiders led 49-20 with 13:33 left, but Grovey ran for two touchdowns and threw a fourth-down touchdown pass and Tech’s Ronald Ferguson misplayed a kickoff into a safety as Arkansas closed to within 49-44 with 8:45 left.

Tech made a couple of time-consuming first downs before punting to the Razorbacks with 3:29 remaining. Grovey completed a fourth-down pass and ran for 18 yards on another fourth down as the Razorbacks reached the Tech 20. But Tracy Saul plastered Derek Russell on the goal line to break up a second-down pass and a fourth-down throw was too high.

TCU 38, Rice 28--Sophomore Leon Clay passed for three touchdowns and ran for another at Ft. Worth, Tex., to lead Texas Christian to its fifth consecutive victory.

Clay directed three third-quarter scoring drives as the Horned Frogs broke a 14-14 halftime tie to remain atop the SWC standings.

Their 5-1 start is the Frogs’ first since 1984 and their 3-0 SWC record is their best since the 1958 team won five games in a row en route to a Cotton Bowl appearance.

The Owls fell to 2-4 and 0-3.

Clay had scoring passes of 11, six and 46 yards, dived a yard for another and left early in the fourth quarter with 288 yards passing. He completed 21 of 33 passes. He was intercepted once.

Baylor 52, SMU 17--J.J. Joe threw two touchdown passes and kept two more scoring drives alive--one by recovering a teammate’s fumble, and another by running for a key first down--as the Bears routed Southern Methodist in an SWC game at Waco, Tex.

Baylor (3-3, 2-1) never punted in the first half, scoring on all five possessions for a 31-10 lead. SMU (1-4, 0-2) scored all of its points after Baylor penalties that gave the Mustangs second chances.

Joe, a redshirt freshman, completed 11 of 15 passes for 182 yards, including first-half scoring plays of seven yards to Greg Anderson and 39 yards to Melvin Bonner.

After SMU had closed to 21-10, Joe guided Baylor 80 yards for another score. On the drive, Joe recovered teammate David Mims’ fumble for an eight-yard gain to the SMU 38. Mims scored on a 12-yard run.

Louisiana Tech 35, Tulsa 21--Gene Johnson threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Eddie Brown during a 21-point third quarter as the Bulldogs defeated the Hurricane in a game pitting two independents at Tulsa, Okla.

Michael Richardson rushed for 131 yards and scored twice for the Bulldogs (4-3), who took advantage of six Tulsa turnovers.

Chris Hughley carried 23 times for 197 yards and a touchdown for the Hurricane (1-6).

After offsetting personal fouls were called in the fourth quarter, a fight broke out on the next play and both benches emptied. The game was stopped for 10 minutes. Six Louisiana Tech players and four Tulsa players were ejected.