Lady Rebels looking for upsets in Bahamas

Thursday, Dec. 16, 1999 | 4:06 a.m.

It sounds more like a relaxing holiday vacation than a serious basketball road trip. But Lady Rebels head coach Regina Miller said she expects her players to be focused on basketball when they travel to the Bahamas next week for a holiday tournament.

UNLV will open the Nassau Sun Splash Shootout against Liberty University on Monday and will play either 15th-ranked Duke or Cal State Fullerton in Tuesday's championship game.

"Certainly we'd like to win a tournament and upset some people, but we certainly will not tolerate anything less than coming home with a split," Miller said of her 4-3 Lady Rebels.

But that's not to say that Miller is going to sequester her players in their hotel rooms during their brief stay in Nassau.

"It's a nice trip for the team," Miller said. "My father was from Nassau and I've never been there, so that's kind of nice, too. For the players, it will be their first time going to the Bahamas -- for some of them, it'll be the first time going out of the country, period."

"It will be nice not only as a basketball experience, but as an educational experience as well. We're going there to do the very best we can and try to win games. At the same time, this is probably a once-in-a-lifetime trip for some kids and I want them to enjoy the experience and take in a different culture while they're there. I'm going to try to have them enjoy the total experience."

A win over Liberty on Monday most likely would pit the Lady Rebels against the nationally ranked Blue Devils in Tuesday's championship game.

"Duke is playing very well right now," Miller said. "We played one top 20 team this year (UC Santa Barbara) and we would like to have an opportunity to play another but we'll have to play well against a Liberty team that has played a lot of top 20 teams."

The Lady Rebels, who are coming off an 83-75 overtime loss at Nevada-Reno last Saturday, will be going to the Bahamas minus one of their post players, 6-1 junior Brooke Ingalls. Ingalls fractured a bone in her foot during practice this week and will be out indefinitely.

For a team that had been starting only two upperclassmen, the loss of Ingalls is especially costly, Miller said.

The loss last weekend at Reno notwithstanding, Miller said her young players -- UNLV starts four underclassmen -- are beginning to pick up the system and showing improvement.

"We're starting to play better, people are starting to understand and accept their roles a little bit better," Miller said. "We have a lot of people who can score, but everyone doesn't need to score for us to win. But the ones we have designated to be the offensive weapons, we're just looking for some more consistent play. I think with more experience, we're going to get consistent production from those players.

"Overall, 5-2, 4-3 is realistically where I thought this team would be at this point in time due to the schedule we have played, so I think we're coming along."

Sophomore Linda Frohlich continues to lead the Lady Rebels in scoring (23 points a game) and rebounding (10.9 per game), and sophomore Kinesha Davis is averaging 17.8 points and 7.6 rebounds a game.

One of the pleasant surprises for Miller has been the emergence of freshman Constance Jinks, who is third in scoring (10.4 ppg).

* SWIMMING: UNLV began the holiday season last weekend with an impressive performance over conference rival Utah, with the women's team defeating the Utes 150-67 and the men's team prevailing 139-96.

The Rebels compiled first-place finishes in all but five events, four of which UNLV did not participate in: men's and women's 1- and 3-meter diving.

Lorena Diaconescu posted a career-best time of 4:53.98 in the 500 free, bettering her lead Mountain West Conference-best time by more than one second.

Sophomore Jacint Simon helped secure a Rebel victory with first-place finishes in the 200 free (1:41.75) and 200 fly (1:52.41).

The Rebels will resume their winter schedule this weekend when they host the 16th annual Winter Invite Saturday through Monday at Buchanan Natatorium. The largest swimming tournament in Las Vegas will be an all-day event each day.