Lady Rebels roll to 7th straight victory

Victoria Sun

Thursday, Jan. 3, 2002 | 10:12 a.m.

From the moment Texas A&M-Corpus Christi conceded the opening tip to UNLV by having 5-foot-7 guard ShaKayla Hawkins watch as the Lady Rebels' 6-foot-6 center Petra Glaser easily gave UNLV control of the ball, it was clear who the superior team was.

But it took two star performances by UNLV's Linda Frohlich and Constance Jinks to hammer the point home.

Frohlich recorded a double-double with game highs in points (27) and rebounds (10) while becoming the first player in school history to score 2,000 points as the Lady Rebels routed the Islanders, 82-64, Wednesday night at the Cox Pavilion for their seventh straight win.

Frohlich scored her 2,000th point and fourth in the game when she hit a jumper 1:39 into the game. Frohlich was fouled on the play and made a free throw to give UNLV a quick 5-0 lead.

"I was not really thinking it was a big deal," Frohlich said. "(But) I'm happy."

So was Jinks, who followed her career high of 33 points in the team's previous win over UC Santa Barbara with 24 points on 11-of-19 shooting and a team-best seven assists.

"Coach Miller has been on me all year about being consistent," Jinks said. "That break that we had over Christmas just gave me some time to get myself together because I knew I had to take my time and come back on a roll.

"It helped me focus mentally on basketball. It's done a lot for me."

Focus was a slight problem for UNLV (11-1) against a clearly undersized Texas A&M-CC (6-9) squad that lost its seventh straight.

Although the Lady Rebels never fell behind, they did have some trouble early against the pesky Islanders, who slowed UNLV with a 2-3 zone.

Texas A&M-CC made 5-of-8 3-pointers in the first half and trailed UNLV by only 11 at the half.

"They stumped us with their zone," Miller said. "We prepared to attack it, we didn't attack it as well as I hoped.

"But the positive thing about tonight is I had the opportunity to let a lot of people play because we've got three games this week.

"When we moved the ball well, we did some very good things. We shot the ball very well, that's an improvement."

UNLV was more aggressive in the second half against the zone and led by as many as 29 points after Jinks made two consecutive steals and converted two layups to make it 79-50.

Even so, the Islanders edged the Lady Rebels in rebounding, 39-37, and had five more offensive rebounds.

Jinks admitted the team has a tendency to look past unheralded opponents, but it won't have time to let up on Friday when UNLV hosts Northern Arizona (7-5), which recently lost by two at Wyoming.

"Northern Arizona has shown to be a good team," Jinks said. "We know that we have to come out and not think of them any less."