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Sunday, November 23, 1997

Tulane 44, Houston 10

By MICHAEL GRACZYK / Associated Press Writer

HOUSTON (AP) -- Shaun King passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more Saturday as Tulane exploded for 28 second-quarter points, wrapping up its best season in 17 years with a 44-10 pounding of Houston.

King scored twice on 1-yard runs and threw TD passes to P.J. Franklin for 14 and 15 yards and became the first player at Tulane (7-4, 5-1 in Conference USA) to top 3,000 yards of total offense, finishing the season at 3,078. He completed 17 of 32 passes for 159 yards Saturday and added 73 yards rushing.

Houston (3-8, 2-4) started shaky and never recovered.

Safety Warren St. Junious intercepted a Jason McKinley pass on the Cougars' sixth offensive play -- one of four turnovers by Houston, leading to a 44-yard field goal by Brad Palazzo, his first of three.

King's first 1-yard scoring run came with 9:57 gone in the second period, then Houston fumbled on the first play of the ensuing series, giving the Green Wave the ball at the Cougar 20.

Four plays later, King found Franklin slanting into the front corner of the end zone to make it 20-0.

Houston went three plays and out and punted to the 50. It took King just seven plays over 1:42 to find the end zone again, hitting Franklin with a pass at the 10 and the junior receiver broke three tackles en route to the 15-yard scoring play.

Cornerback Michael Jordan made it 34-0 when he returned an interception all the way with 2:03 to go in the first half. The touchdown gave Tulane 365 points for the season, the most ever for the Green Wave and breaking the school mark of 358 set in 1987.

Houston's only points came on a 14-yard TD run by Ketric Sanford in the third quarter and a 26-yard field goal by Sebastian Villarreal in the final period. Both followed second-half Tulane fumbles.

With three field goals and five extra points Saturday, Tulane kicker Palazzo finished the season with 109 points, becoming the first Green Wave player since 1928 to top 100 points in a season.