UTEP women's basketball: Middle Tennessee routs shorthanded Miners

Cheyenne Parker recorded the first triple-double in Middle Tennessee women's basketball history, easily leading the Blue Raiders over the Miners 74-53 in Murfreesboro Saturday morning.

Parker found herself in foul trouble in the first half, but would finish with 18 points, 17 rebounds, and 11 blocks for Blue Raiders who shot 44.4 percent from the field, and never trailed.

Olivia Jones would get Middle Tennessee off to a scorching start, scoring 10 of Middle's 12 straight points to open the first six minutes of the game with the Miners only making two of their first 18 looks from the field.

But after the rough start, the Miners went to paint with Parker on the bench and finished 7/13 from the field in the final seven minutes of the half.

Irene Gari finished with 12 points, and scored eight of her points in the final five minutes of the first half that would key a 12-3 UTEP run to end the first frame sending the teams into the locker rooms with Middle leading 32-24.

That was the closest the Miners would get the rest of the way as they had no answer for Parker and Olivia Jones who led all scorers finishing with 31 points.  Middle Tennessee led by as much as 21, pulling away from the Miners with those huge performances.

Three Miners reached double figures led by Sparkle Taylor's double-double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.  Daeshianna McCants had a very active 13 point, six rebound outing, and Gari also added seven rebounds.

UTEP held their own on the boards, though shot a cold 31.9 percent from the field, and were 3/16 on three point tries.

Middle Tennessee methodically had 22 assists on 28 of their field goals, and improve to 14-5, and 7-1 in conference play.

Despite the adversity of injuries handed to the Miners this season, Keitha Adams' group never stopped fighting and will look to snap their five game losing streak in the Don next weekend with a visit from the Florida schools on Thursday, and Saturday.