Jan. 30, 2001
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STORYLINE: The UNLV Lady Rebels (13-4, 3-2) return home this week for a pair of Mountain West Conference games ... They will battle Colorado State (14-4, 3-2) for third place in the league standings on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 7:35 p.m. ... At 3-2, both teams are presently tied for third and trail New Mexico by one-half game in the standings ... UNLV will have an opportunity to collect its first win over a team with a better RPI ... The Rams dealt UNLV its most heartbreaking loss of the regular season last year, scoring the game-winner on a layup with 1.5 seconds remaining ... On Saturday, Feb.3, UNLV will host Wyoming (9-9, 1-4) ... Saturday's game is "Pack the Mack 2" night, a special promotion to attempt to break the school and state women's basketball attendance records. Tickets for the game are only $2, and for every ticket sold, UNLV will donate $1 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas ... The Rebels are a perfect 9-0 on Saturdays.
LADY REBELS ON THE AIR: Thursday's game will be shown on tape delay in Las Vegas on KTUD UPN Cable 14/Channel 25 on Sunday, Feb. 4 at 4:00 p.m. Tim Neverett and Trip Mitchell will call the action. And, all Lady Rebel games are broadcast in Las Vegas 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 former Lady Rebel Cheryl Kosewicz, who handles the color commentary for all UNLV home games.
THE LADY REBELS: UNLV (13-4, 3-2) 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 ... The Rebels climbed over the .500 mark in conference play for the first time this season after their 41-point win at San Diego State last Saturday ... UNLV has won its last two games by a total of 72 points ... Head coach Regina Miller is in her third season with the Lady Rebels and has a record of 47-27 (.635) ... Miller collected her 100th career victory as a head coach in the win over Eastern Washington ... UNLV is led by Linda Fr?hlich, who paces the MWC in scoring with 18.3 ppg and ranks second in rebounding with 7.9 rpg.
ABOUT COLORADO STATE: Colorado State (14-4, 3-2) climbed to a third-place tie in the MWC standings, sweeping its two home conference games last week ... CSU handled Air Force, 88-53, before upsetting New Mexico, 65-58 ... The Rams return 10 letterwinners and three starters from last season's 23-10 team that finished tied for third in the Mountain West Conference with a 9-5 mark ... They are coached by Tom Collen, who has a 94-23 (.803) record in his fourth season at CSU ... Sophomore forward Ashley Augspurger leads the Rams in scoring at 12.3 ppg while sophomore center Shannon Strecker is CSU's leading rebounder at 6.4 rpg.
COLORADO STATE SERIES NOTES: CSU leads the series, 8-2 ... The series began in 1984-85 with UNLV pulling out a 60-50 win, but remained idle until the Rebels joined the Western Athletic Conference in 1996 ... Since then, the schools have met at least twice annually ... The Rams won the next eight games in the series before UNLV snapped their streak with an 84-69 upset in Fort Collins last season ... The most memorable game in the series came in the 1999 WAC Tournament when UNLV nearly upset the fourth-ranked Rams. The Rebels tied the game with two minutes remaining before WAC Player of the Year Becky Hammon hit a three-pointer and four straight free throws to preserve a 71-67 win and lift her squad to a 30-1 record ... Last season, CSU's Angie Gorton scored a driving layup with 1.5 seconds remaining to stun the Rebels at the Thomas & Mack Center, 81-79 ... UNLV rebounded by snapping the Rams' 15-game conference home winning streak that spanned three seasons with an 84-69 victory at Moby Arena.
ABOUT WYOMING: Wyoming (9-9, 1-4) enters the week in seventh place in the MWC standings ... The Cowgirls played a couple of tight games last week, falling to New Mexico 57-53 and defeating Air Force, 58-54 ... The Cowgirls return nine letterwinners and three starters from last season's 10-18 team that finished tied for sixth in the Mountain West Conference with a 4-10 mark ... They are coached by Cindy Fisher, who has a 26-46 (.361) record in her third season at Wyoming ... Senior guard Shelby Hoffman leads the Cowgirls in scoring at 11.7 ppg while senior forward Jessica Gibbs is their leading rebounder at 7.4 rpg.
WYOMING SERIES NOTES: UNLV took the lead in the all-time series, 6-4, with wins in both meetings between the schools last season ... The Rebels won 73-59 at the Thomas & Mack Center and ran to a 96-81 win in the regular season finale in Wyoming ... The series began in 1979-80 with a UNLV 66-46 win ... The Cowgirls found revenge in the 1981-82 season with a 67-55 win, and the two did not meet again until they were Western Athletic Conference rivals ... Since the 1996-97 season, the schools have met at least twice annually ... Wyoming stretched its winning streak over the Rebels to four before the pendulum swung the other way ... UNLV has won the last five meetings ... Although no Rebels claim Wyoming as home, UW senior forward Jessica Gibbs hails from Wells, Nev. ... Both teams rely upon the help of Swedish talent -- UNLV's Viveca L?f is a Stockholm native, just north of Norrkoping, the home of the Cowgirls' Lisa McCann.
TEAMWORK: The Rebels posted their largest margin of victory in the Regina Miller era with their 41-point blowout of San Diego State, 82-41. It was the biggest win for UNLV since a 95-52 victory over San Jose State in 1993 and tied the record for largest win in a MWC game set by BYU against SDSU last year ... Four players scored in double figures vs. the Aztecs. En route to the win, the Rebels used their largest scoring run of the year, a 27-0 roll covering 11:04 ... The 31-point win at Air Force was the third straight win in the series by 30 or more points ... UNLV's victory over UC Irvine on Jan. 6 was the 10th of the season and marked the earliest in a season that UNLV had won its 10th game since defeating Pacific, 64-54, on Jan. 2, 1991, to improve to 10-0 ... UNLV has five double-doubles on the season: Linda Fr?hlich (3) vs. Cal State Northridge (17 pts, 11 reb), Nevada, Reno (17 pts, 14 reb) and San Diego State (21 pts, 10 reb), Brooke Ingalls (1) vs. Cal State Northridge (11pts, 11 reb), and Dayna Gambill (1) vs. Nevada, Reno (12 pts, 11 asst).
WITH THE BALL: Through 17 games, UNLV is averaging 69.6 points per game, which ranks second in the MWC ... The Rebels lead the league in field goal percentage, shooting .457 (434-950) from the field and rank second in three-point shooting perecentage at .358 (64-179) ... Six Rebels (Fr?hlich, Gambill, Gl?ser, Ingalls, Johansson and Jinks) are shooting 75 percent or better from the line ... UNLV topped the 80-point mark for the fifth time this season in the win over San Diego State ... In the win over the Aztecs, Dayna Gambill had eight assists and no turnovers ... Utah held the Rebels to a season-low 29.3 percent from the floor ... Against Pacific, Linda Fr?hlich broke the school record for single-game shooting percentage, connecting on 16-of-17 (.941) field goals for a season-high 37 points. In just 30 minutes, Fr?hlich was three points shy of a career high and seven points shy of the school record ... UNLV shot a season-best .870 (20-23) from the line against Cal State Northridge ... Constance Jinks has scored in double figures in seven of the last nine games while Petra Gl?ser has gone into double digits in five of the last seven contests ... Kinesha Davis broke out for a season-best 16 points against BYU on 6-of-8 shooting.
DEFENDING THE POST: The Lady Rebels are doing it with defense this season. They have allowed only three opponents to shoot better than 50 percent from the floor in a game and have lost all three games, while only seven of their 17 foes have topped the 40 percent shooting mark. The last two Rebel opponents were both held under 30-percent shooting from the field and under 20-percent shooting from three-point range while six of the Rebels' last eight opponents have been held under 40-percent shooting ... The Rebels are forcing more than 20 turnovers per game and rank second in the MWC in turnover margin (+2.59). They pressured SDSU into coughing up the ball a season-best 34 times, and at least five times against BYU, UNLV forced a turnover by denying the Cougars a shot before the 30-second clock expired ... The Rebels kept Air Force to just 23.9 percent shooting from the floor, the lowest total by any opponent all season, and did not allow the Falcons a shot from inside three-point range for the first 16 minutes of the game ... Linda Fr?hlich is tied for the league lead in rebounding with 7.9 rpg and is tops in the MWC with nearly 6.0 defensive boards each game ... Kinesha Davis has picked up her play under the boards, averaging 10.0 rpg over the last two games ... Brooke Ingalls pulled down a career-high 11 boards against Cal State Northridge to record her first-ever double-double ... The Rebels stole the ball a season-high 16 times from Pacific ... Viveca L?f posted the league's top rebounding game this season with 16 boards against Arkansas-Pine Bluff ... The addition of some front line height has also caused a swell in the Rebels' block totals. UNLV has 46 blocked shots in 17 games and didn't record its 46th block until the 21st game of last year. Linda Fr?hlich leads the team and ranks fourth in the MWC with 18 blocks, followed by Petra Gl?ser's eight and Viveca L?f's six.
UNLV RECEIVES VOTES IN AP POLL: The Lady Rebels made their third appearance in the Associated Press poll, receiving one vote on Jan. 1. However, that vote was lost in the Jan. 8 poll despite UNLV's 70-56 victory over UC Irvine in its only appearance last week. UNLV received three votes in the 2000-01 Preseason poll, tying them with Stephen F. Austin for 45th. After losing the three votes without playing a game, the Rebels reclaimed two of the votes in the Dec. 4 poll and tied for 49th. Those votes were lost in the week following a loss at No. 27 Arizona. The Associated Press poll ranks only the top 25 teams, but includes all other teams that also received votes. 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.
ON THE TUBE: Both of UNLV's games last two home games were shown throughout the Las Vegas valley on KTUD Channel 25/Cable 14 on tape delay. Three times this season the Las Vegas UPN affiliate has broadcast the Lady Rebels from the Thomas & Mack Center, and it plans to show at least one more contest, UNLV's Feb.1 matchup against Colorado State.
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 8-2 at home this season and own an all-time record of 93-31 (.750) 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.
PACKING THE MACK: The voters aren't the only ones who have noticed the improved play out of the Lady Rebels. A season-best 1,277 fans rolled in to watch UNLV host defending conference champ Utah on Jan. 11. In 10 home games this season, UNLV has averaged 763 fans per game. That is up nearly 40 percent from last year, an average of 200 more fans per game. The Rebels have five more games scheduled at home before hosting the Mountain West Conference Tournament in March.
PACK THE MACK 2: Speaking of Packing the Mack, the UNLV athletics department will sponsor "Pack the Mack 2," a special promotion set for the Feb. 3 game against Wyoming. All tickets for the game have been discounted to $2 in order to help achieve the department's goal to break the state attendance record for women's basketball. The mark of 3,754 was set in 1985 when the Lady Rebels hosted a NCAA Tournament game against San Diego State. For each ticket sold, UNLV will donate $1 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas. The university is also looking for local businesses to purchase discounted tickets and donate them to area schools and community centers. The business that puchases the most tickets will be recognized at both a men's and women's home basketball game. Last season's "Pack the Mack" promotion against New Mexico drew a season-high 1,152 fans. For tickets or for more information, call 895-UNLV.
MAKING THE PASS: One reason that UNLV's offense has been so successful this season is that players are making the extra pass when necessary. The Lady Rebels rank second in the Mountain West Conference in assists this season, averaging 16.8 dishes per game, and 66 percent of their buckets have come off of a pass (287 assists on 434 field goals). Individually, Dayna Gambill leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio (2.10) and ranks second in total assists (82) and assists per game (5.1). Linda Fr?hlich also ranks among the league leaders, checking in at fifth with a 3.71 apg average and 13th with a 0.98 assist/turnover ratio.
FR?HLICH CLIMBS THE CHARTS: Linda Fr?hlich is steadily climbing the UNLV career lists for both scoring and rebounding. The junior forward entered the season with 1,261 career points and has added 256 this season for a total of 1,517, which ranks her fifth in school history. She surpassed Gwynn Hobbs and Donya Monroe with her 21 points at San Diego State. The All-American also has pulled down 687 rebounds in her career, which ranks 10th all-time. She needs just two more rebounds to surpass Merlelynn Lange in ninth place.
MILESTONE ARENA: UNLV is making a habit of watching its players achieve milestones at San Diego's Cox Arena. Linda Fr?hlich topped the 1,500-point mark for her career in the Rebels win at SDSU on Jan. 27, reaching the milestone on the same floor where she tallied her 1,000th career point last season. She wasn't the only Rebel to notch a career mark as Kinesha Davis scored her 1,000th career point later in the first half. Davis registered most of that total as a freshman at Western Illinois in 1997-98, breaking the Mid-Continent Conference freshman scoring record with 504 points. They are the only active Rebels with at least 1,000 career points.
AWARDS ABUNDANT AT TOURNAMENTS: 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. One week later, UNLV repeated by winning the Roger L. White Invitational in Evanston, Ill., and Jinks repeated by claiming MVP kudos after scoring a career-high 33 in the championship game. Junior Linda Fr?hlich was chosen as an all-tournament honoree.
TEAM OF THE WEEK?: Ten times this season the Mountain West Conference has honored the league's top player for each week, and FOUR of those times a Rebel has captured the award. After Constance Jinks captured back-to-back tournament MVPs, the 5-7 guard from Chicago was selected as the MWC Player of the Week on Dec. 4, becoming only the second Lady Rebel to earn the honor. One week later, freshman Petra Gl?ser added her name to the list, claiming the honor on Dec. 11. Gl?ser scored a career-high 21 against Arizona and followed that performance with a 8-for-9 shooting night from the floor against Eastern Washington. A scheduling break which allowed the Lady Rebels 10 days off to concentrate in final exams prevented a three-peat as UNLV did not play over that span. However, when the next award was announced on Jan. 3, it went to Linda Fr?hlich for her school-record setting performance against Pacific. Fr?hlich did not stop there, earning the award again on Jan. 29 after her third double-double of the year at San Diego State. It was the fifth time in her career she was so honored. No other team in the conference boasts more than two Players of the Week.
MILLER REACHES CENTURY MARK IN WINS: UNLV head coach Regina Miller achieved a coveted career milestone in the Rebels' victory over Eastern Washington -- her 100th victory. Miller now has an overall coaching record of 107-127 in her ninth season as a head coach, including a 60-100 mark compiled in six seasons at Western Illinois, and is 47-27 in her third season at UNLV.
UCSB GAME CANCELED: The Lady Rebels' Jan. 3 game at UC Santa Barbara was canceled due to a scheduling error by the Gauchos and will not be played. UNLV will play 26 regular season games this year.
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.
AYE, AYE, CAP'N: Head coach Regina Miller has named senior Brooke Ingalls and junior Linda Fr?hlich as co-captains for the 2000-01 season. They rank first and second respectively in games played among active players.
SPORTS PROFESSIONALS: Two Lady Rebels are already working on the professional careers, although off of the basketball court. Seniors Brooke Ingalls and Marenna Nyffeler both serve as interns in the UNLV athletics department. In addition to helping promote their team behind the scenes, both players write a piece for unlvrebels.com, the Official Athletic Site for UNLV on the internet. Ingalls is an assistant in the UNLV Sports Information Office and contributes a weekly diary called the "NoteBrooke," available only on the web site. Nyffeler is beginning her second semester as an intern in the Sports Marketing Department and provides a one-on-one interview with a different teammate each week on the net. Both players plan to graduate in May with their degrees in communications.
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.
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.
