UTEP women's basketball: Cold shooting dooms Miners on the road

The first ten minutes of Saturday afternoon's game foreshadowed the Miners fate against Old Dominion, and in the end Old Dominion showed no weaknesses in a 79-50 Valentines Day rout of UTEP.

UTEP shot 3/15 from the field in the first ten minutes, and went scoreless from the 16:25 mark of the first half until Irene Gari snapped the drought with a layup at the 7:00 minute mark, but by then Old Dominion built a 26-8 lead, and took a 40-17 commanding lead into the halftime break.

The Miners would go on a 7-0 run to open the second half, but UTEP would not come closer than 15 points the rest of the way, as ODU shot 44 percent from from the field, and had three score in double figures.

Sparkle Taylor led UTEP with 17 points on 7/12 shooting, two other Miners joined her in double figures.  Cameasha Turner added 11 points, and Lulu McKinney chipped in 10.

ODU dominated the rebound margin with 56-36 edge, and finished with 15 assists on 28 of their field goals.

Jennie Simms scored a game high 19 points, and added 12 rebounds to her line for ODU, Tiffany Minor added 17 points, Ashley Betz-White scored 16 points, and 6'3 post Ije Ajemba hauled in 13 rebounds, adding eight points in the dominating win.

UTEP's two game wining streak came to an end with UTEP shooting 28.6 percent from the field, and committing 20 turnovers.

Old Dominion (14-9, 7-5) dominated every statistical aspect with a 27-11 edge in points off turnovers, and a 30-14 advantage in points in the paint.

UTEP (10-12, 5-8) will take a couple of days off to recover from the long road trip with a "bye" next Thursday, and will close out their three game road swing next Saturday afternoon in San Antonio against the UTSA Roadrunners.