Record crowd watches as Lady Rebels cruise

Steve Guiremand

Friday, Jan. 25, 2002 | 9:52 a.m.

Linda Frohlich summed up Thursday night's record crowd of 4,626 at the Thomas & Mack Center in one word.

"Amazing," the 6-foot-2 senior forward from Oldendorf, Germany, said after the Lady Rebels' 75-50 Mountain West Conference victory over Air Force.

The turnout, helped by free admission and free sandwiches for students, was the largest in UNLV women's basketball history. The previous high was 3,754 on March 15, 1985, for an NCAA Tournament game against San Diego State.

"To tell you the truth, I didn't expect it," said Frohlich, who finished with 37 points and 12 rebounds. "I've been here four years and I'm used to playing in front of 900 people.

"It's so amazing to see both sides filled and it's not for a men's game. It's amazing."

UNLV head coach Regina Miller agreed.

"I thought it was just awesome," she said. "Now we need them to come back on Saturday night when we play New Mexico. I really liked the fact they were loud. They didn't just come here and sit on their hands. They made a lot of noise tonight."

Especially once the Lady Rebels (15-3, 3-2) gave them something to cheer about.

Despite jumping out to a quick 13-0 lead and forcing 16 turnovers, UNLV went through several sloppy stretches in the first half and led by just six points, 33-27, at intermission against a scrappy Air Force (4-13, 0-4) squad that has now lost 31 consecutive conference games.

Miller was seething. She benched Frohlich and star guard Constance Jinks briefly in the first half after they committed miscues.

"I was mad at her," Miller said of Frohlich. "Linda is such a key part of what we want to do out there. She broke down a couple of times on defense, so I took her out. I wanted to make a point."

It worked.

"She definitely made her point," Frohlich said. "It really hurt my pride when she took me out because I really wanted to come out and play well tonight in front of all these people. I had some time to think and I just went back out there and played harder."

Frohlich took over the game in the final 11 minutes when the Lady Rebels went on a 19-0 run to blow the game open, 71-43. Frohlich scored 10 points in that stretch, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Despite playing just 32 minutes, she came within three points of matching her career high (40 points) and had her 12th double-double of the season. She also had seven steals, four assists and three blocked shots.

The Lady Rebels return to action on Saturday night at 7:35 at the Thomas & Mack when they host New Mexico.