COLLEGE FOOTBALL : SOUTHEASTERN ROUNDUP : Malone’s Late Catch Gives Alabama Win : Associated Press

Some people might put it up to luck. Brian Burgdorf put it up to Toderick Malone.

Malone made a leaping catch of a 35-yard, fourth-down pass from Burgdorf with 17 seconds remaining Saturday and No. 13 Alabama escaped with a 24-20 nonconference victory over Southern Mississippi at Birmingham, Ala.

“I stepped up in the pocket, saw Toderick, and I knew he’d come back for the ball,” said Burgdorf, who completed 19 of 27 passes for 265 yards. “Toderick deserves all the credit, he and the offensive line.

Alabama (2-0) trailed, 17-3, at halftime and appeared headed for its first loss of the season when Chris Pierce kicked a 35-yard field goal to put Southern Mississippi (1-1) ahead, 20-17, with 2:50 remaining.

“I couldn’t believe we let it slip away,” Southern Miss quarterback Heath Graham said. “We had the opportunity to put them away in the first half and we didn’t.”

On fourth and 16 with time nearly gone, Burgdorf stepped back and lofted a pass to Malone, who jumped for the ball as he reached the goal line.

No. 6 Auburn 76, Tennessee-Chattanooga 10--Stephen Davis scored four touchdowns as the Tigers won a non-conference game at Auburn, Ala.

UT-Chattanooga (1-1), a I-AA team that has not beaten a I-A opponent since 1984 and has never beaten Auburn in 20 tries, is 4-107-2 against SEC opponents. The game’s most exciting moment came in the second quarter, when the public address announcer mistakenly reported that Kentucky was beating Florida 14-0, drawing a collective gasp from the crowd. It was actually the other way around.

Davis, who rushed for only 70 yards last week in Auburn’s victory over Ole Miss, again saw limited action and finished with 87 yards on 11 carries. His four touchdowns were one short of the school record, set by Joe Cribbs in 1978.

Auburn scored a school-record 11 touchdowns and had 617 yards of offense.

Auburn quarterback Patrick Nix, who passed for a school-record 382 yards in the Ole Miss game, was nine of nine for 193 yards, including a 10-yard touchdown pass to Hicks Poor.

Arkansas 51, South Carolina 21--Madre Hill scored a school-record six touchdowns and ran for 178 yards as the Razorbacks routed the Gamecocks in an SEC game at Fayetteville, Ark.

Quarterback Barry Lunney set up two scores with runs of 17 and 57 yards in the first half and Hill scored on runs of three, one, two, one, 12 and 68 yards--the last two after the game was decided.

Lunney also combined with J.J. Meadors on pass plays of 22, 25 and 32 yards to set up scores as Arkansas (1-1, 1-0) opened a 31-7 lead four minutes into the third quarter.

South Carolina (0-2, 0-2) had 207 yards in the first half but gave away two turnovers.

LSU 34, Mississippi St. 16--Freshman tailback Kevin Faulk, one of the most highly recruited high school players last year, rushed for 171 yards and two touchdowns as the Tigers won at Starkville, Miss.

Eddie Kennison was contained as a return specialist, but caught a 52-yard touchdown pass for LSU (1-1), which beat Mississippi State for the fourth consecutive season.

Mississippi State (1-1) kicked away from Kennison, who returned a punt 100 yards in last year’s game and had 212 all-purpose yards two years ago. Kennison had only two kickoff returns for 28 yards, and didn’t return a punt.

Kennison got behind cornerback Izell McGill for the touchdown pass from Jamie Howard late in the first quarter.

Mississippi 56, Indiana St. 10--Josh Nelson tied a school record with four touchdown passes and Dou Innocent had his eighth 100-yard rushing game in a row a s Ole Miss (1-1) won a non-conference game at Oxford, Miss.

Nelson completed 17 of 20 passes for 257 yards. Ole Miss outgained Indiana State (1-1) 504 yards to 241.