Feb. 6, 2001
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STORYLINE: The UNLV Lady Rebels (14-5, 4-3) begin the second round of Mountain West Conference play this week with a pair of road games ... First, they head to Provo, Utah, to face Brigham Young (12-8, 4-3) on Thursday, Feb. 8 at 7:00 p.m. MST ... With identical 4-3 league records the two schools are in a three-way tie with New Mexico for third place in the conference standings ... UNLV defeated the Cougars at the Thomas & Mack Center in their first meeting this season, 61-50, on Jan. 13 ... On Saturday, Feb. 10, UNLV heads to Salt Lake City to challenge 17th-ranked Utah (18-2, 7-0) in a 3:00 p.m. matchup ... The Utes managed to escape the first run through the league unscathed, including defeating UNLV, 70-51, at the Mack on Jan. 11 ... The Rebels are a perfect 9-0 on Saturdays and 1-0 in day games.
LADY REBELS ON THE AIR: 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.
TRAVEL PLANS: UNLV will depart Las Vegas from the Thomas & Mack Center at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 26, and arrive in Salt Lake City on Delta flight #1568 at 1:23 p.m. MST. While in Provo, the team will be staying at the Provo Marriott Hotel, (801) 377-4700. On Friday, the team will move to the Salt Lake City Marriott - University Park, (801) 581-1000. The team will return to Las Vegas immediately after Saturday's game on Delta flight #1883 and arrive at 8:37 p.m. PST.
THE LADY REBELS: UNLV (14-5, 4-3) 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 split in league play last week, falling to Colorado State at home, 69-62 before rebounding for a 69-61 come-from-behind win over Wyoming ... Head coach Regina Miller is in her third season with the Lady Rebels and has a record of 48-28 (.632) ... 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 17.4 ppg and 8.1 rpg.
ABOUT BRIGHAM YOUNG: BYU (12-8, 4-3) swept its MWC road trip last week, defeating Air Force and New Mexico to climb into a third-place tie in the conference standings ... The Cougars knocked off Air Force, 74-59, and upset New Mexico, 79-72 ... The Cougars return five letterwinners and three starters from last season's 22-9 team that finished second in the Mountain West Conference with a 10-4 mark ... They are coached by Trent Shippen, who has a 65-44 (.596) record in his fourth season at BYU ... The Cougars are led in scoring by sophomore guard Erin Thorn, who averages 16.4 ppg, and in rebounding by senior center Caroline Beus, who pulls down 5.3 rpg.
BRIGHAM YOUNG SERIES NOTES: The Cougars lead the all-time series, 8-5 ... UNLV snapped BYU's five-game winning streak in the series with its 61-50 victory on Jan. 13 ... The series began in 1974-75, the Rebels' first season of competition, with UNLV taking a 58-55 victory ... The Rebels won the first three contests, but have managed only one of the last six.
ABOUT UTAH: Utah (18-2, 7-0) enters the week atop the MWC standings and ranked 17th nationally in both the ESPN and Associated Press polls ... The Utes defeated Air Force, 59-29, in their only action last week ... The Utes return 11 letterwinners and four starters from last season's 23-8 team that won the Mountain West Conference with a 11-3 mark ... They are coached by Elaine Elliott, who has a 364-150 (.708) record in her 18th season at Utah ... Senior center Lauren Beckman leads the Utes in scoring at 12.0 ppg and in rebounding with 7.8 rpg.
UTAH SERIES NOTES: Utah leads the all-time series, 10-8, including a 70-51 victory in the first meeting on Jan. 11 ... The Utes have won six straight in the series ... Three of those wins came last season as Utah swept the season series before defeating the Rebels in the semifinals of the MWC Tournament ... The series began in 1974-75, UNLV's first season of competition, with a 70-64 Utah win ... UNLV then won the next five games and six of the next eight as the schools played at least once annually until 1980-81 ... Senior center Lauren Beckman hails from Elko, Nev., in northern Nevada while the UNLV roster shows one Utah native -- senior forward Marenna Nyffeler.
TEAMWORK: At 4-3, UNLV has posted its best conference start since beginning the 1994-95 Big West season 5-2 ... In front of its largest crowd in 12 years, the Lady Rebels erased a 14-point deficit to come from behind and beat Wyoming, 69-61 ... 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 19 games, UNLV is averaging 69.2 points per game, which ranks third in the MWC ... The Rebels lead the league in field goal percentage, shooting .454 (485-1,069) from the field and rank second in three-point shooting perecentage at .348 (70-201) ... 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 ... UNLV has had at least three players in double figures in each of the last four games. Kinesha Davis has scored 10 or more points in three straight and seven of the last 11 games, including a season-high 17 against Colorado State. Constance Jinks has scored in double figures in 11 of the last 13 games while Petra Gl?ser has gone into double digits in six of her last eight contests.
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 nine of their 19 foes have topped the 40 percent shooting mark. Six of the Rebels' last 10 opponents have been held under 40-percent shooting ... The Rebels are forcing 20 turnovers per game and rank second in the MWC in turnover margin (+2.32). 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 leads the league with 8.1 rpg and nearly 6.0 defensive boards each game ... Kinesha Davis has picked up her play under the boards. She is averaging 9.0 rpg over the last four games and has climbed to 15th in the league with 5.0 rpg ... 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 ... UNLV has 50 blocked shots in 19 games and didn't record its 50th block until the 22nd game of last year. Linda Fr?hlich leads the team and ranks fourth in the MWC with 20 blocks, followed by Petra Gl?ser's eight and Viveca L?f's seven.
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: Four times this season the Las Vegas UPN affiliate KTUD Channel 25/Cable 14 has broadcast the Lady Rebels from the Thomas & Mack Center, on tape delay. It is believed to be the most in-season television appearances in the program's history.
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 9-3 at home this season and own an all-time record of 94-32 (.746) 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. Against Wyoming on Feb. 3, a season-best 2,148 fans rolled in to watch UNLV as part of the school's "Pack the Mack" promotion. That marked the largest crowd to watch a Lady Rebel home game since 2,200 attended for the 1989-90 home finale against UC Santa Barbara. Only five times in school history has a crowd of more than 2,000 been recorded. For every ticket sold, UNLV donated $1 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Greater Las Vegas ... Some 1,277 turned out to watch UNLV host defending conference champ Utah on Jan. 11. In 12 home games this season, UNLV has averaged 883 fans per game. That is up more than 60 percent from last year, an average of 342 more fans per game. The Rebels have three more games scheduled at home before hosting the Mountain West Conference Tournament in March.
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 16.7 dishes per game, and 65 percent of their buckets have come off of a pass (317 assists on 485 field goals). Individually, Dayna Gambill leads the conference in assist/turnover ratio (2.04) and ranks second in total assists (92) and assists per game (5.1). Linda Fr?hlich also ranks among the league leaders, checking in at fifth with a 3.62 apg average and 12th 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 278 this season for a total of 1,539, 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 707 rebounds in her career, which ranks eighth all-time. She passed Merlelynn Lange and Teresa Jackson with her 13 boards against Colorado State.
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?: The Mountain West Conference has honored the league's top player for each week 11 times this season, and in FOUR of those instances 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 SDSU. It was the fifth time in her career she was so honored. No other team in the MWC 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 record of 108-128 in her ninth season as a head coach, including a 60-100 mark compiled in six years at Western Illinois, and is 48-28 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 Brooke Ingalls and 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.
