UNLV claims championship of Golden Gopher Classic

Monday, Nov. 30, 1998 | 10:24 a.m.

MINNEAPOLIS -- Freshman forward Linda Froehlich recorded game highs of 24 points and 12 rebounds to lead the UNLV Lady Rebels past Minnesota 75-61 in the championship game Sunday of the Golden Gopher Classic.

Froehlich, the tournament's most valuable player, scored 17 second-half points as UNLV led by as many as 17 on its way to its fourth win of the season in as many games. The tournament championship for UNLV is its first since the 1993-94 UNLV Showboat Shootout, and first on the road since the Houston Lady Cougar Classic during the 1990-91 season.

Leading 49-39 with 11:34 left in the second half, UNLV opened up the game with consecutive three pointers by freshman guard Erin Johansson and Froehlich.

In the first half, UNLV trailed early 11-4 and went on a 17-2 run over 7:01 to take the lead, which it would never relinquish.

"We wanted to mix it up defensively," UNLV Head Coach Regina Miller said following the win. "When you are playing a young team trying to turn it around like Minnesota, you want to keep them thinking about things and our mixing it up did just that. We were successful with what we wanted to do."

With the win, UNLV matched its victory total of each of its previous three seasons, four. It also marks UNLV first four-game winning streak since the 1994-95 team won four in a row.

UNLV has now won three-straight road games for the first time since the 1994-95 campaign and is off to its best start since the 1990-91 team started the season with 14 wins.

Senior guard Kristen Pool, who was also named to the all-tournament team, scored a career-high 20 points for UNLV (4-0). Johansson was the third and final Lady Rebel in double digit scoring with 10 points.

Senior forward Sonja Robinson led Minnesota (3-3) with 18 points and nine rebounds.

UNLV shot a season-high 45.8 percent from the field, while Minnesota only connected on 30.4 percent of its attempts.

"Our intent today was to use as much of the clock as we could," Miller said. "We didn't want to get into a running game because of their speed. Our defense did a nice job setting up the tempo with our zone."

The Lady Rebels shot 40.0 percent from three-point range and 77.1 percent from the free throw line to Minnesota's 16.7 and 53.3 percent, respectively.

Minnesota shot 21 more shots from the field and made 11 fewer free throws than UNLV.

In the classic's consolation game earlier in the day, Bradley (3-2) defeated Delaware (3-2), 94-87.

UNLV opens its home schedule Friday against Belmont in the Four Queens Shootout at Lied Gymnasium at 7:05 p.m. The game follows the shootout's opening matchup between South Florida and Tennessee-Chattanooga at 5:05 p.m.

On Saturday, the consolation game will be held at 5:05 p.m., with the championship matchup scheduled to begin at 7:05 p.m.