Lady Rebels fall to Utah

Friday, Jan. 12, 2001 | 10:30 a.m.

Regina Miller had a simple explanation for the Lady Rebels' 70-51 loss to Utah in their Mountain West Conference opener Thursday night at the Thomas & Mack Center.

"They made the run and we didn't make the run," Miller said of the Utes' 11-0 tear midway through the second half that turned a 1-point UNLV lead into a 10-point deficit in the span of four minutes.

In reality, much more went wrong for UNLV (10-3 overall, 0-1 in conference) than a four-minute scoreless stretch.

The Lady Rebels, who entered the game leading the conference in field-goal percentage, shot an abysmal 22 percent (7-for-32) from the field in the first half, gave up numerous backdoor layups in the second half and were beaten on the boards on both ends of the court all night.

"We stopped ourselves," Miller said. "We just took tough shots instead of easy shots.

"I talked to the team about being aggressive rebounding the basketball. They outrebounded us by (11) and that's very frustrating because we were shorter last year and we led the conference in rebounding. To me, it's a sign of a lack of aggressiveness."

Junior forward Linda Frohlich, UNLV's most potent offensive weapon, was 0-for-6 from the field in the first half and 3-12 on the night and finished with 11 points and eight rebounds. Frohlich came into the contest averaging 19.7 points a game.

Sophomore guard Constance Jinks came off the bench and led the Lady Rebels with 20 points.

Senior forward Amy Ewert paced the Utes (13-2, 2-0) with 17 points and junior center Lauren Beckman added 12 points and eight rebounds.

"This conference is going to be very competitive game in and game out; this is just an indication of how it's going to be all year," Miller said.

"We've got to bounce back and show that we can defend a little better in critical situations ... and play mentally tough and focus in on what's going on inside the lines -- not what's on the outside."

UNLV will get that chance Saturday night when it hosts BYU in a conference game at 7:35 p.m. at the Thomas & Mack.