Lady Rebels set for run at Utah, MWC

Friday, Jan. 16, 2004 | 10:16 a.m.

Before the start of the season, the Mountain West women's basketball coaches ranked UNLV, which enters conference play with the league's best record, as only its fifth-best team.

But don't call the young Lady Rebels overachievers, at least not yet.

"When they selected us fifth, I was all right with that," said coach Regina Miller, whose Lady Rebels (11-2) will host San Diego State (5-8) in the conference opener for both teams at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at Cox Pavilion.

"I knew we had the potential to be a solid team this year. So, no, I don't think we've overachieved, I think we're achieving. Now I want to build on that. I think we have just as good a chance as anyone to win the Mountain West. We need a little bit of luck and just to keep getting better."

While 24th-ranked Utah (10-4) still is considered the class of the Mountain West, the gap between it and the rest of the championship contenders seems to have narrowed. Miller thinks any one of four teams -- BYU (10-4), Colorado State (9-4), New Mexico (7-5) and her Lady Rebels -- could emerge as bona fide threats to the Utes' surpremacy.

San Diego State, Wyoming (4-9) and Air Force (3-10) are this year's spoilers.

Saturday's game will mark the second consecutive season that UNLV and San Diego State have opened conference play against each other. The Lady Rebels edged the Aztecs 50-48 at the other Cox Pavilion a year ago and then won the rematch here, 81-61.

"They're a young team and so are we," Miller said. "We want to make it an uptempo game, that's our style. They're more of a half-court team so tempo will be critical. But if we do get in a half-court game, we need to get the ball where it needs to be, into the hands of our good players."

That would be RanDee Henry, the Mountain West's leading scorer with a 19.3 average, and Sherry McCracklin, its top rebounder with 12.8 a game. McCracklin also is UNLV's second-leading scorer with a 14.8 average.

And once again, Miller will be looking for consistency from her backcourt.

Point guard Sheena Moore (14.9 ppg) has been brilliant some nights but disappears on others, such as last Sunday against Northern Arizona, when she neglected to take a shot in the first half.

Shooting guard InFini Robinson, meanwhile, has yet to find the range on her jump shot (.283 field-goal percentage) -- but at least she's working on it. Long after her teammates had left Cox after a rugged 2 1/2-hour practice Thursday, Robinson was launching 3-point rainbows by her lonesome.

"I'm going to keep shooting, because that's what good shooters do," said Robinson, one of only two seniors on the UNLV roster.

But she said her lack of accuracy is perplexing.

"Definitely, definitely. It bothers me," said Robinson, who averaged 13.2 points last year on 35-percent field-goal shooting after transferring from Michigan and sitting out a year.

"When I miss a shot that I am supposed to make, I get (upset). Every time I shoot, I (think) it's going in. So when I miss, I'm wondering whether I put enough leg in it, did I flick my wrist enough, should I take a little off?

"But I'm (upset) when I miss a shot because I think I should make every one. And that's what coach expects me to do."