Nov. 29, 2000
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STORYLINE: The UNLV Lady Rebels (3-0) hit the road for the first time this season as they head to Evanston, Ill., to compete in the Roger L. White Invitational hosted by Northwestern University ... UNLV will face Northeastern University (1-1) in the first round of the tournament at 6:00 p.m. PST on Friday, Dec. 1 ... Northwestern (2-1) will play Penn (0-1) in the other half of the bracket at 4:00 p.m. PST on Friday with consolation and championship games set for the same times on Saturday ... UNLV is off to its best start since 1998-99 when it began the season 4-0 and looks to improve to 5-0 for the first time since 1990-91 when the Lady Rebels opened the season with 14 straight wins ... UNLV has won two of the five tournament in which it has played during the Regina Miller era -- the 1998 Golden Gopher Classic in Minneapolis and last week's Cox Communications/Lady Rebel Shootout ... The trip will be a homecoming for two Rebels. Sophomores Constance Jinks and Dishawn McCracklin are both from the Chicago area.
LADY REBELS ON THE AIR: Once again, all Lady Rebel games will be broadcast on radio throughout the Las Vegas area on KENO 1460 AM and throughout the world on unlvrebels.com. Returning for his 14th season as the Voice of the Lady Rebels, Bob Blum, the dean of West Coast broadcasters, will deliver the play-by-play. He will be joined courtside by UNLV SID Kevin Force, who will handle the color commentary for all road games.
THE LADY REBELS: UNLV returns 11 letterwinners and four starters from last season's 17-12 team that finished fifth in the inaugural season of the Mountain West Conference ... Head coach Regina Miller begins her third season with the Lady Rebels and has a record of 37-23 (.617) ... UNLV is led in scoring by sophomore guard Constance Jinks, who ranks fifth in the Mountain West Conference with 14.3 ppg, and in rebounding by senior forward Viveca L?f, who is third in the league with 8.0 rpg ... The Lady Rebels began the year ranked 45th in the Associated Press Preseason Poll, receiving three votes.
ABOUT NORTHEASTERN: Northeastern (1-1), located in Boston, Mass., is coming off its first victory of the season, a 77-65 triumph over Quinnipac ... The Huskies return seven letterwinners and two starters from last season's 17-13 team that finished fourth in the America East Conference with a 11-7 mark ... They are coached by Willette White, who has just a 1-1 record in her first season at NU ... Melissa Kowalski leads the Huskies in scoring with 18.0 ppg.
ABOUT PENN: Penn (0-1) began its season on Nov. 18 with an 81-75 setback at St. Joseph's and will play its first game in 13 days when it meets Northwestern on Friday ... All-America candidate Diana Caramanico scored 20 points and pulled down 13 rebounds while Jewel Clark led the Quakers in the scoring column with 21 ... Caramanico earned honorable mention All-America honors last season after finishing second in the nation in scoring ... The Quakers return four starters and 10 letterwinners from last season's 18-10 squad that finished tied for second in the Ivy League with a 9-5 mark ... Head coach Kelly Greenburg has an overall record of 18-11 in her second season at Penn.
ABOUT NORTHWESTERN: Northwestern (2-1) enters the tournament following its first defeat of the year, a 78-59 loss at home against Drake ... Three players are averaging double figures in scoring for the Wildcats: Emily Butler, Leslie Dolland and Michelle Zylstra ... The `Cats return four starters and nine letterwinners from a squad that finished 7-21 last season and tied for 10th place in the Big Ten with a 3-13 record ... June Olkowski, in her second year at the school, has a 9-22 record and owns a career mark of 157-160 in her 12th season.
SERIES NOTES: UNLV has never played any of the other three schools competing in the Roger L. White Invitational ... Friday's meeting will be only the second time that UNLV has faced an opponent from the America East Conference. In Regina Miller's first season at UNLV, the Rebels topped Delaware by a point, 77-76, en route to winning the 1998 Golden Gopher Classic ... The Lady Rebels have never faced an Ivy League opponent and are 2-3 all-time against the Big Ten Conference.
WITH THE BALL: Through three games, UNLV is averaging just more than 63 points per game ... The Rebels scored a season-high 74 points in the win over Arkansas-Pine Bluff ... Constance Jinks has already been to the free throw line 18 times this year ... Erin Johansson picked up where she left off -- behind the arc. The junior sharpshooter is 6-of-11 from three-point range and ranks fourth in the Mountain West Conference, shooting 54.5 percent from downtown ... Kinesha Davis has yet to miss a free throw or three-pointer this season ... Freshman Petra Gl?ser has wasted no time making her presence known. The 6-6 center is second on the team and eighth in the league with 12.3 points per game. She is also shooting 51.7 percent from the floor and 77.8 percent from the line.
DEFENDING THE POST: The Lady Rebels are doing it with defense this season. They have not allowed an opponent to shoot better than 36.4 percent from the floor in a game and have kept all of their opponents under the 60-point plateau ... The addition of some front line height has also caused a swell in the Rebels' block totals. UNLV already has eight blocked shots on the season and didn't record its eighth block until the sixth game of last year. Viveca L?f leads the Rebels with four blocked shots ... L?f also leads the team and the conference in defensive rebounds. The 6-3 senior pulled down a career high 16 rebounds against Arkansas-Pine Bluff and has 20 defensive boards on the year ... Senior Brooke Ingalls also set a career high for rebounding, grabbing eight missed shots in the win over Charlotte.
LADY REBELS RETURN TO THE THOMAS & MACK: After rolling to a 10-5 record in its first full season at the Thomas & Mack Center, UNLV is happy to return to the venue in 2000-01. The Lady Rebels are 3-0 at home this season and own an all-time record of 88-29 (.752) in the Mack, in the arena's 18th season of basketball. This will be the last season that the Lady Rebels play in the Mack with the new 3,300-seat Cox Pavilion set to open next year.
AWARDS ABUNDANT AT SHOOTOUT: Not only did the Lady Rebels win their home tournament for the first time since the 1993-94 season, but they managed to walk away with all the hardware, too. Sophomore Constance Jinks was honored as the tourney's most valuable player after scoring 18 and 17 points in respective games. Freshman Petra Gl?ser and junior Kinesha Davis both earned all-tournament nods for their role in helping UNLV to the title.
ALL-UMLAUT TEAM: One statistic that the Lady Rebels are almost guaranteed to lead the country in this season is umlauts. An umlaut is a vowel sound caused by partial assimilation occurring in the following syllable and is indicated with a pair of dots over the vowel. After having just one umlaut in both of the last two seasons, the Lady Rebels are up to three on this year's roster: senior Viveca L?f, junior Linda Fr?hlich and freshman Petra Gl?ser.
IN THE TREES: Speaking of L?f and Gl?ser, the two overseas additions have helped UNLV to become the tallest team in the MWC. At 6-3 and 6-6 respectively, both are taller than any player on UNLV's 1999-00 roster. Throw in freshman Padra Strong, who stands 6-4, and the Rebels are no longer looking up at the rest of the league. UNLV boasts three of the MWC's 11 players that check in at 6-3 or taller, while only Gl?ser, Strong, Caroline Matthews of Utah and Morgan Vargas of San Diego State can reach the 6-4 mark.
FR?HLICH RETURNS FROM GERMANY: As one of the top players in her home country of Germany, Linda Fr?hlich was selected to the German National team and competed with the squad for 12 days in mid-November. Although she missed UNLV's first three games of the season, the Lady Rebels managed to escape unscathed. Meanwhile, Fr?hlich helped Germany to a 1-1 record at the qualifications for the European Championships. Germany defeated Romania by 28 points in Freiburg, Germany, and lost to Lithuania in Vilnius, Lithuania, by 12 points. To qualify, Germany needs Lithuania to defeat Romania, which would send Fr?hlich back to Europe to play for Germany at the European Championships in France in September of 2001.
UNLV RECEIVES VOTES IN AP PRESEASON POLL: Well, it's not the top 25, but the Lady Rebels made an appearance in the Associated Press poll. UNLV received three votes in the 2000-01 Preseason poll, tying them with Stephen F. Austin for 45th. The Associated Press poll ranks only the top 25 teams, but includes all other teams that also received votes. The Rebels lost their three votes by the time the first regular season poll was released on Nov. 20. UNLV has not been ranked among the top 25 since Jan. 18, 1994, when the Lady Rebels ranked 25th with a 10-2 overall record.
UNLV CHOSEN FOURTH IN MWC PRESEASON POLL: At its annual media day, the Mountain West Conference released its preseason coaches and media polls. The Lady Rebels were chosen to finish fourth in the MWC standings in both polls following a fifth-place finish and an 8-6 conference mark a year ago. Utah was chosen in both polls to defend its conference title.
FR?HLICH EARNS PRESEASON HONORS: Honors are nothing new to junior standout Linda Fr?hlich, but the 6-2 forward from Oldendorf, Germany, has a couple more honors for her trophy case. She was chosen as a preseason All-American by Street & Smith's magazine after earning honorable mention All-America honors last season by both the WBCA and the Associated Press. She was also selected as the preseason Mountain West Conference Player of the Year by the league's coaches at its annual media day for the second straight year.
MILLER HONORED IN THE OFF SEASON: Head coach Regina Miller collected some honors of her own this summer. In addition to a contract extension that will keep her on the Lady Rebels' bench through at least the 2002-03 season, Miller was chosen as a court coach at the 2000 USA Basketball Women's Summer Development Camp, which is the trials for the Jones Cup team. She spent a week in Colorado Springs, Colo., working with many of the nation's elite players who were trying out for the national team.
TEXAS-SAN ANTONIO REVIEW: The Lady Rebels got off to a good start on the season, knocking off Texas-San Antonio in the season opener, 57-41. Despite missing junior All-American Linda Fr?hlich, UNLV held the Roadrunners to just six first-half field goals and 30-percent shooting for the game. Freshman Petra Gl?ser, in her collegiate debut, led the Rebels with 12 points and seven rebounds, while Brooke Ingalls scored 10 on 4-of-5 shooting from the field.
ARKANSAS-PINE BLUFF REVIEW: Constance Jinks came off the bench and topped the scoring column with 18 points to lead UNLV to a 74-57 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff in the first round of the Cox Communications/Lady Rebel Shootout. The Lady Rebels (2-0) held UAPB (0-2) to just 34.5-percent shooting from the field and just eight second-half field goals in the win. Jinks went 10-of-13 from the free throw line and had five assists while Petra Gl?ser scored 17 points despite sitting on the bench during the final 10 minutes of the game. Viveca L?f pulled down a career-high 16 rebounds.
CHARLOTTE REVIEW: UNLV went on a 14-2 run over a nine-minute stretch in the second half to come from behind and defeat Charlotte, 60-55, in the championship game of the Cox Communications/Lady Rebel Shootout. The Lady Rebels (3-0) were down by as many as 11 early in the second half, but rebounded to score eight unanswered points and cut the 49ers (1-3) lead to just three. UNLV, which had led only once at 2-0, regained the lead with 6:34 to play on a free throw by Constance Jinks, 47-46. That free throw sparked the late run by the Rebels which was sealed by an Erin Johansson three-pointer that put UNLV up by six, 54-48.
