Jinks keys another Lady Rebels win

Steve Guiremand

Monday, Dec. 31, 2001 | 10:36 a.m.

UNLV's Lady Rebels played their first game of the season in the Thomas & Mack Center on Sunday night. And nobody was happier about that than junior guard Constance Jinks.

"It brings back a lot of good memories to play in here," Jinks said. "Don't get me wrong, I like the Cox Pavilion. It's just that we have a lot of good memories in here."

Add Sunday night's 71-62 victory over UC Santa Barbara to the fond memory file for Jinks and company.

The 5-foot-9 junior from Chicago tied a career high with 33 points, including several crucial shots down the stretch, and also had a team-high eight rebounds as the Lady Rebels (10-1) won their sixth straight game.

Jinks scored 20 of her points in the first half when UNLV jumped out to a 43-25 lead the five-time defending Big West Conference champion Gauchos, who came into the contest with a glossy No. 40 RPI ranking.

But Santa Barbara (4-5) used a 13-2 run in the second half to cut UNLV's lead to just five points, 57-52, with 5:55 remaining.

The Lady Rebels led by just seven, 60-53, with 3:44, when Jinks hit the biggest shot of the game, a long jumper from the right corner to increase UNLV's lead to 62-53. Following a Gaucho turnover, she added a six-footer to put the Lady Rebels ahead by 11, 64-53, and seal the victory.

"As long as we win the game, that's all I care about," Jinks said of her big night. "I just did what I had to do to help us win the game. I thought it was a good team effort for us tonight."

Jinks, who was 13-of-23 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line, was so hot down the stretch that she even managed to bank in a basket off the shot clock above the backboard. The three officials missed the play, which should have been ruled out of bounds.

"Yeah, it hit the clock," Jinks said. "I thought they'd call it. But luckily they didn't. I'll take it."

All-America forward Linda Frohlich added 16 points and seven rebounds before fouling out with 1:26 to go while the Lady Rebels also picked up key contributions from reserve guards Julia Gray (four points, five steals in 15 minutes), Kinesha Davis (nine points, five rebounds) and Talisha Mitchell (four points, four assists, two steals) as head coach Regina Miller used a three-guard offense down the stretch to better utilize her team's quickness advantage.

"Wow," Frohlich said when asked about Jinks' performance. "No one could stop her. I'm so proud of her the way she stepped up like that."

Don't let the Gauchos' record fool you. Among their six losses was a three-pointer against 23rd-ranked Penn State, a one-pointer at Virginia and competitive losses to No. 7 Purdue (82-67) and No. 10 Stanford (87-64). Santa Barbara whipped Ohio State, 70-50, in Columbus earlier this year.

Miller compared the game to UNLV's earlier loss to 13th-ranked Georgia, 77-62, in the Oakland Tribune Classic earlier this month.

"The difference between this game and that one is we responded this time when Santa Barbara made its second-half run," Miller said. "Against Georgia we got a big lead and then when they made their run we began rushing our shots and got away from what we were doing. But tonight we stayed with our game plan. I think that shows signs of the growth and development of this team."

The Lady Rebels return to action on Wednesday night when they host Texas A& M-Corpus Christi at the Cox Pavilion at 7:35.