Texas Tech women’s basketball coach Krista Gerlich saw four quarters of the tenacity and competitiveness she’s longed for all season.
It just happened to be from the other team.
Gerlich complimented the Lady Raiders’ heart in a late comeback attempt but said the effort needed to be sustained, like that of Oklahoma State standout Stailee Heard. Heard poured in a career-high 34 points to buoy the Cowgirls to a 71-68 victory Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena.
Tech trailed by 14 heading into the final quarter and cut the deficit to one. OSU led by two when Heard grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws with 28 seconds to go.
Gerlich said the rally began when the Lady Raiders “started competing.”
“That’s what we’ve gotta have, kids that want to compete,” Gerlich said, “no matter what’s happening on the court. It doesn’t matter if you’re making shots or not, compete. That’s what Heard did to us. Every time she got the ball in the first half, she basically said I’m gonna take you to the basket.”
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Gerlich took similar issue with the team’s lack of “fight” in an 89-53 loss to West Virginia earlier this month.
“I thought in the fourth quarter we showed a lot of fight,” Gerlich said Saturday. “Obviously the kids that were on the floor really went to war and fought to win. We’ve got to have more of that. We have to learn how to do that from the tip(-off). This is Big 12 basketball. You have to fight for every single possession. …
“I thought we had some really valiant efforts from some individuals. But at the end of the day it’s a loss, and that’s where we are.”
Gerlich said the team’s “intensity level” improved in the fourth quarter and pointed to Bailey Maupin as the catalyst. Maupin scored 15 of her team-high 24 points in the second half.
The Tech coach said playing with the same edge over 40 minutes would solve a lot of problems.
“That’s a no-brainer to me,” Gerlich said. “If you fight like that for four quarters, good things are gonna happen for you.”
OSU (17-3, 7-2) halted Tech’s two-game winning streak to drop the Lady Raiders to 3-6 in conference. Still, Gerlich said overall the team is trending in the right direction after bucking a recent five-game losing skid.
“I definitely think we’re playing better basketball than we did the first five games of conference,” Gerlich said. “Obviously you’re not playing ranked opponents, but still our kids are competing. They were finding ways to win. I wish we would’ve found a way to win tonight because obviously then you would feel really good going into the Kansas game.
“I think our kids are playing some pretty good basketball, we’ve just go to clean up some areas.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Oklahoma State women’s basketball denies Texas Tech comeback attempt
