Sun Belt Tournament

The hunt for a conference victory will continue for Louisiana's Ragin' Cajuns women's basketball team after falling to Middle Tennessee 90-59 on Thursday's opening day of Sun Belt Conference Tournament play in New Orleans.

The Cajuns finish the season 7-21, while Middle Tennessee ups to 16-12 and will face Denver on Sunday in the second round of the conference tournament.

The first few minutes of the game did not start the way the Cajuns had hoped. Middle Tennessee darted out to a 14-2 lead with the help of several turnovers by Louisiana-Lafayette.? After a Sarah Richey jumper stopped the Lady Raiders 12-0 run, Middle Tennessee came back with a 9-0 spurt to take a 23-4 lead with twelve minutes to play in the first half.?

The Cajuns tried to get back into the game, but could never get any closer than 17 points in the half.? Fourteen first half turnovers by UL Lafayette helped the Lady Raiders hold a 45-27 halftime lead.

The second half proved no different than the first.? Middle Tennessee scored six points to the Cajuns' zero in the half's first four minutes, extending their lead to 24, at 51-27.? The Lady Raiders cruised the rest of the game, with their lead never dipping below 22 points.

Richey led the Cajuns with 24 points, a career high, and 15 rebounds, her ninth double-double of the season.

Richey had seven blocks in the game, finishing the season with 86, six more than the Cajuns previous career leader (Tiffany Green) had in two seasons (80).? The Carencro native recorded at least one block in all but one of the team's 28 games this season, including blocks in the last 25 consecutive games.

As the only four-year letterwinner on the Cajuns squad this season, DeLesha Qualls appeared in her 111th game, passing WNBA legend Kim Perrot into sole possession of 2nd place on the Cajuns all-time games played list.

UL Lafayette (59) RICHEY 11-21 2-2 24; TOLSTON 5-12 0-0 11; GREEN 3-8 2-2 11; WILLIAMS 1-2 2-2 4; EVANS 2-5 0-0 4; SIMON 1-6 1-2 3; CAFFEY 1-6 0-0 2; JOHNSON 0-1 0-0 0; QUALLS 0-2 0-0 0; FINCHER 0-2 0-2 0. Totals 24-65 7-10 59.

Middle Tennessee (90) JUSTICE 8-16 1-2 17; MCCLINIC 7-10 0-1 16; THOMATIS 7-12 0-0 14;

FISHER 4-7 0-0 10; HOLMES 3-8 3-3 9; MCCLURE 3-4 2-2 9; HALL 2-7 0-0 4; SCHLUETER 2-3 0-0 4;

KIRBY 2-2 0-0 4; PENTTILA 1-5 0-0 2; ALUKA 0-2 1-2 1; PARVIAINEN 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 39-78 7-10 90.

Halftime- ULL 27, MT 45. 3-point goals-ULL 4-15 (GREEN 3-6; TOLSTON 1-5; EVANS 0-2;

SIMON 0-1; FINCHER 0-1), MT 5-14 (MCCLINIC 2-4; FISHER 2-3; MCCLURE 1-1; PARVIAINEN 0-1;

HOLMES 0-1; THOMATIS 0-2; JUSTICE 0-2). Fouled out--ULL-None, MT-None. Rebounds-ULL 39 (RICHEY 15), MT 46 (HOLMES 13). Assists-ULL 13 (FINCHER 3), MT 24 (HOLMES 8).

Total fouls-ULL 9, MT 8.

University of Louisiana at Lafayette Athletics

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