GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) —
The challenge all season was to
return the franchise to the luster of
the Lombardi years.
And Sunday’s stage was perfect:
a frozen tundra at Lambeau Field,
60,216 Cheeseheads shouting their
hearts out and a minus-17 wind
chill.
When it was over, Green Bay
and traditionhad won out over sec
ond-year Carolina 30-13 in the
NFC championship game to reach
the Super Bowl for the First time
since Super Bowl II.
Meanwhile, the weather and an
11-minute power failure couldn’t
keep New England from making its
second Super Bowl in franchise
history. The Patriots beat dream
crusher Jacksonville 20-6 to pave
their way to professional football’s
biggest game. __
“All of us were dreaming about
this game all week. It was like we
were being tormented,” said Reggie
White. “Now we can go home and
have pleasant dreams.”
New England Coach Bill
Parcells said he will have pleasant
thoughts as well.
“I’mjust very excited for the op
portunity,” Parcells said. “These
players have given me everything.”
Like all Parcells-coached teams,
the Patriots relied on their defense.
Trailing 13-6, Jacksonville
quarterback Mark Brunell guided
the Jaguars to the Patriot 5-yard
line late in the game before being
picked off by Willie Clay. Otis
Smith returned a fumble 47 yards
to send Foxboro Stadium into a
ffenzy.
Then with 2:36 remaining, the
Jaguars had one final shot to tie the
game, but Otis Smith returned a
James Stewart fumble 47 yards for
the Super Bowl clinching touch
down.
In the final four minutes, the
New England defense forced three
Jacksonville turnovers.
The Packers won like they have
all season relying on the arm of
Brett Favre.
Favre, whose two turnovers
helped Carolina to an early lead,
was 19 of 29 for 292 yards, includ
ing touchdown passes of 29 yards
to Dorsey Levens and 6 yards to
Antonio Freeman.
Green Bay turned a 10-7 defi
cit into* a 17-10 halftime lead
within 38 seconds in the first half s
final minute.
A Chris Jacke field goal and a
touchdown reception by Freeman
helped the Packers steal the mo
mentum from the Panthers.
nie Patriots ride a huge wave
Of momentum into the Super Bowl
and have the chance to break the
NFC’s lock on the game. NFC
teams have won 12 consecutive
Super Bowls, but that could all
change Jan. 26 in New Orleans.
Parcell.s coached the New York
Giants to a Super Bowl win during
that stretch.
The Packers, however, head to
New Orleans as the favorite over
New England.
“It’s very special,” Packer
Coach Mike Holmgren said. “We
have a handful of players who are
near the end of their careers. And
that’s very special, to have an op
portunity to get to the Super Bowl,
because not everybody gets there.”
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Lue scores 29 points
as NU beats Aggies
WIN from page 13
and win all of our home games.”
The Huskers played their fourth
straight game Saturday without senior
Bernard Gamer, the team’s second
leading scorer. Coach Danny Nee sus
pended the 6-foot-7 forward for an
undisclosed disciplinary reason fol
lowing NU’s 84-73 loss to No. 6 Cin
cinnati in the second game of the
Puerto Rico Classic on Dec. 31.
In danger of missing the remain
der of the season because of uncom
pleted academic course work, Gamer
regained his eligibility on Saturday
and will practice with the team today
for the first time in two weeks.
“We’ve really missed him,” Nee
said. “I think we would have won a
couple games if he was here and he
was healthy.”
Before heading south, the Huskers
lost* 70-56 to No. 11 Minnesota at the
Devaney Center on Dec. 21. NU then
beat Old Dominion 72-66 in the first
round of the Puerto Rico Classic.
NU also lost Lue in Puerto Rico.
The 6-fool sophomore sprained his left
knee in the first fial f of the loss to Cin
cinnati and didn’t play in the Husk
ers’ Jan. 1 game with Bowling Green,
a 58-55 loss.
Sophomore Alvin Mitchell re
placed Lue, scoring a career-best 16
points against the Bearcats, but NU
missed Lue, its on-court leader,
against Bowling Green, a team the
Huskers beat less than a month ear
lier in the championship game of the
Ameritas Classic.
Lue returned on Jan. 4 against
'.i u
Colorado but was still slowed b^the
injury in the Huskers’ 79-73 loss to
the Buffaloes in Boulder.
Lue played at 80 percent in NU’s
71-52 over Creighton on Wednesday
and returned to near top form Satur
day, he said. He scored 19 points after
halftime, when the Huskers trailed 37
36, including the second half’s first
two points, which gave Nebraska its
first lead of the day, 38-37.
The lead changed hands seven
times in the second half before a Larry
Florence bucket and a seven-foot Lue
jumper, gave NU a 73-69 advantage
with 25 seconds left. A&M freshman
Jerald Brown then drilled his eighth
3-pointer of the day—a school record
— to cut the lead to one point.
After a Lue free throw, Nee called
a timeout with 9.3 seconds left, but
A&M’s Dario Quesada missed a 3
pointer that would have won the game.
Aggie guard Tracey Anderson grabbed
the rebound and missed an off-balance
shot as the clock expired, ending the
game.
Brown, a 6-8 guard who was one
of the nation’s most highly-recruited
•players last season, led the Aggies (6
7 and 0-3) with 24 points, nailing 8
of 10 3-pointers. Florence scored 16
points for NU, which avoided its first
0-2 league start in four years.
“It was the type of game the Big
12 is going to be,” Nee said. “We
didn’t do anything, but the bottom line
is we found away to win. We have
no illusions of who we are and what
we are, and we are going to keep work
ing at it. But we do think we are get
ting better.”
Win mends NU s pain
WOMEN from 13
The win improved the Huskers to
11-1 overall and 1-1 in the conference
while Texas A&M dropped to 7-6 and
0-3.
“The win really showed the char
acter and heart of our team in that we
were able to battle back and go up by
six at half,” Nebraska junior Anna
DeForge said. “From there on out we
knew we weren’t going to lose the
lead.*
“We were pretty upset with the
sluggish start that we had.”
Against the Aggies, DeForge,
scored a game-high 25 points and also
grabbed a team-best six rebounds. In
the past four games, Dcforge, a 5-11
junior from Niagara, Wis., lias led the
Huskers in scoring and rebounding.
Except for the game against the
Aggies, DeForge has also been the
leader in assists.
It hasn’t just been DeForge the past
two weeks. Both DeForge and Ctiach
Angela Beck said the tench and the
younger players played a key role in
the win against the Aggies.
Ten players scored ftethe Huskers
against Tbxas A&M, jyhilei% differ
ent players saw action on the cburflf
some point in the game.
“We kept looking for somebody
different to step up,” Beck'said. “The
ones who came off the bench really
responded to what we needed. It was
just a good response from the bench.”
Beck said some of the key people
off the bench were senior guard Sheila
McPherson, who made a 3-poinler,
sophomore forward Kate Benson, who
made a turnaround jump shot to start
a Nebraska run and senior Amy
Gusso, who played seven solid min
utes.
A key to the quick start has been
the play of Nebraska’s four freshman,
most notably forward Charlie Rogers.
Rogers, who has been in the start
ing lineup the past two games, was the
Huskers second-leading scorer against
Texas A&M with 11 points.
Besides Rogers, freshman guard
Nicole Kubik scored nine points while
Cisco Gilmore, who had only seven
steals this year, had four against the
Aggies.
“We’re a solid team,” Beck said.
“I don’t know if that’s enough because
we’ve got some things we need to im
prove on. tam proud of our record and
proud of the effort the players have put
forth.”
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