The Texas Tech women’s basketball team entered Big 12 play 11-2 last season before a win over Houston. The Lady Raiders finished 5-13 in conference.
Coincidentally, Tech (11-2) will start Big 12 in the same scenario when Houston comes to United Supermarkets Arena on Sunday.
So is there reason to believe the Lady Raiders can rewrite the rest of the conference story? Tech coach Krista Gerlich thinks so.
“I think we can look back at our non-conference schedule and talk to our team about the significant wins that we have,” Gerlich said Friday. “Playing a Washington State who’s been in the (NCAA) Tournament multiple times, Gonzaga that’s been in the Tournament multiple times. Obviously we didn’t get the win against Florida State, but that’s gonna be a team that’s a Tournament team, and we were right there with them.”
The fifth-year Lady Raiders coach also pointed to true road games at SMU and Arkansas, in which the team split. That is a noted difference from last year. Tech’s only non-conference contests outside of Lubbock in 2023-24 came in neutral site tournaments. The Lady Raiders beat Arkansas 75-72 on Dec. 15.
The formula for Tech’s success is similar, though. Gerlich touted depth and defense, which helped the Lady Raiders to victory against NET No. 66 Stephen F. Austin, their highest-ranked win. Missouri State (No. 91) and Lamar (No. 97) are the only other wins against NET top-100 foes. Tech beat Lamar 73-67 in its non-conference finale Tuesday. The Cardinals led by two with about six minutes remaining and were within one possession with less than two minutes to play.
Loghan Johnson, part of Gerlich’s optimism surrounding team depth, scored 13 of her career-high 16 points in the second half. Gerlich said she will also rely on stalwarts Bailey Maupin, Jasmine Shavers and Jordyn Merritt to step up as Big 12 play starts.
Gerlich acknowledged deficiencies in rebounding and turnovers, but she sees those as correctable areas.
“I think we still have a lot to improve on,” Gerlich said, “but I do think that our depth really shown through. You can definitely tell that that’s a strength of ours. I think our defense has really been good. We’ve got to finish it better with rebounds. I was disappointed in how we rebounded the basketball in a couple of games, and also just ball security. We’ve got to continue to work on that. But I think if we can clean those two things up, we have a chance to do some really special things and compete with everybody in our conference.”
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech women’s basketball starts Big 12 play against Houston
