Lady Rebels earn bid to WNIT

Steve Guiremand

Monday, March 12, 2001 | 10:11 a.m.

It was a nervous time for UNLV Lady Rebels coach Regina Miller for a while on Sunday night.

The Women's National Invitation Tournament was supposed to release its pairings at 6 p.m. PST. But by 8 p.m., Miller's phone still hadn't rung.

Finally, at around 8:30 p.m., UNLV sports information assistant Kevin Force phoned Miller with the good news.

UNLV (18-9) will open WNIT play on Thursday at 7 p.m. against West Coast Conference tournament finalist Loyola Marymount (21-9, 10-4) at Gersten Pavilion.

"I'm very happy to be one of the 96 teams still playing in March," Miller said. "This is something that we had hoped for. We certainly want to represent the conference and the school well in this tournament."

It's the first postseason appearance in Miller's three-year UNLV coaching career and the first for the Lady Rebels since a 77-67 loss to Montana in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in 1994.

"It's definitely a milestone for this program," Miller said. "It shows that we are headed in the right direction. When you have a team as young as ours is, you want to play as much as you can in March."

"I'm very excited right now," junior forward Linda Frohlich said. "I was sitting today waiting for Coach Miller to call to see if we were in or out. Thank goodness we're in."

"It's not the NCAA Tournament, but we're still playing another day," senior forward Brooke Ingalls added.

Loyola Marymount will hardly be a pushover for the Lady Rebels.

The Lions, who had a strong RPI of 43 and lost to St. Mary's, 58-53, in the finals of the West Coast Conference tourney last week in San Diego, thought they would garner an NCAA Tournament at-large berth. In fact, the headline on the school's web page read, "Women's Basketball Has High Hopes For Ticket to Big Dance After Good Run in WCC Tournament."

The Lions might have a good beef about getting overlooked by the NCAA. Among LMU's nonconference victories was a 64-58 win over Mountain West champ Utah at the Huntsmen Center on Jan. 2. The Utes were granted a fifth seed by the NCAA.

"We know they're one of three teams to beat Utah this year," Miller said. "In fact, we have tape of that game. So we should have a good idea of what to prepare for."

However, one of the key players in that upset of Utah, junior point guard Rosa Bernasconi, suffered a torn ACL shortly after that contest and is out for the rest of the season.

The Lions, who have four starters scoring in double figures, will be making their first-ever postseason appearance. They are led by two-time all-WCC guard Bryn Britton, who finished third in the WCC in scoring with a 15.0 ppg average, and 6-2 freshman center Adrianne Slaughter (10.4 ppg, 7.0 rpg), who led the WCC with 48 blocked shots.

"We have learned to fight through adversity and we are by no means through," Loyola Marymount coach Julie Wilhoit said.

The winner of Thursday night's game will play the winner of Friday night's contest between North Texas and Oklahoma State at a site to be determined.