Lady Rebels get back on track vs. Air Force

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Feb. 16, 2001 | 10:46 a.m.

After losing back-to-back games for the first time all season last week at BYU and Utah, the UNLV Lady Rebels had to be happy to see Thursday night's opponent, Air Force, next up on the schedule.

The Falcons, after all, brought an eight-game losing streak and 3-18 record to the Thomas & Mack. Their tallest starter, junior forward Samantha Clifton, stands only 5-11, or just an inch taller than UNLV guard Kinesha Davis.

So it wasn't much of a surprise that the Lady Rebels, behind the strong play of 6-2 junior forward Linda Frohlich, used a 20-0 spurt over one six-minute stretch in the first half to pull away for an easy 73-47 victory over the Falcons.

The bigger, quicker and much more talented Lady Rebels (15-7, 5-5), who host New Mexico (14-9, 5-4) on Saturday night in a battle for fourth place in the Mountain West Conference, held a 38-20 rebounding edge over Air Force and forced 27 turnovers that led to 37 UNLV points.

Frohlich, the MWC preseason player of the year, had a game-high 22 points, many on short turnaround jumpers down low. She also grabbed six rebounds, had four assists and added two steals in just 28 minutes of action.

"I thought Linda did a good job tonight just being very aggressive," UNLV coach Regina Miller said. "Offensively, defensively, rebounding the ball, she really stepped up. And that's what we're going to need her to do the rest of the season."

Frohlich gave her teammates, particularly senior point guard Dayna Gambill (12 points, 10 assists), a lot of the credit for her success.

"I was close to the basket," Frohlich said. "Dayna gave me a lot of passes. She read the defense and saw that they were playing behind me (in the post). We played smart."

Although she was happy that her team snapped its losing streak, Frohlich said she didn't get much satisfaction from beating an Air Force team that trailed by as many as 37 points (66-29) midway through the second half on Thursday night.

"It builds your confidence," Frohlich said. "(But) personally I don't like games like that because it's no challenge. Overall we were able to play our offenses and practice basically against another team."

Things figure to be much more competitive on Saturday night against a New Mexico squad that used a 35-2 run to whip the Lady Rebels, 79-51, at The Pit in January.

"It was a big headline in their newspapers ... only those numbers (35-2)," Frohlich said. "Yeah, we really want to get them back after what they did to us at their place."