If the Texas Tech women’s basketball team was going to pull off the comeback win over Mississippi State, Krista Gerlich knew she had to take a page out of Grant McCasland’s playbook.
The Lady Raiders had to get tougher.
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Gemma Nunez, Texas Tech’s steely point guard, was tacked with two fouls within the first three minutes of play. A two-point game at the time of Nunez’s departure to the bench, Mississippi State outscored the Lady Raiders 21-8 the rest of the quarter. The offense was struggling, the defense not much better, and Texas Tech was on the verge of seeing its hot start to the season evaporate inside United Supermarkets Arena.
Gerlich is nothing if not a fan of quality defense, and she got plenty of that the rest of the way.
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After giving up 31 points in the first quarter alone, the Lady Raiders held the Bulldogs to just 14 over the next two frames (including two in the second quarter) to get back in the game. Then it became about getting enough shots to fall.
Luckily, Gerlich has more than one option for that. Snudda Collins buried a critical 3-pointer while Bailey Maupin and Jalynn Bristow joined her in leading the Lady Raiders to the 69-62 comeback victory.
“Mississippi State definitely threw the first punch in the first quarter,” Gerlich said after the game, “but I thought our kids and our staff adjusted so well, especially in the second quarter defensively.”
The Bulldogs featured more size and length than the Lady Raiders had to offer, so Gerlich opted to change the approach, utilizing smaller lineups with Collins (17 points, eight rebounds) and Bristow (18 points, five rebounds) handling defensive duties in the paint much of the game.
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Nunez played the rest of the game without picking up another foul, totaling four steals and four assists to help spearhead the comeback.
Texas Tech has had strong starts to nonconference play before, most notably winning its first 11 games to start the 2023-24 season. This year’s 5-0 start has a few different elements, though. The obvious is the competition level, the Lady Raiders’ last three victories coming against other power-conference teams.
Texas Tech’s Bailey Maupin attempts a shot against Mississippi State during a non-conference women’s basketball game, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, at United Supermarkets Arena.
Gerlich said this year’s schedule has been a slow build, one put in place over the past few years to get the likes of SMU, Arkansas and Mississippi State to Lubbock in consecutive games.
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Getting better opponents on the schedule is one thing, but it always comes back to the players who are able to execute.
“It looks different,” Maupin, who had 17 points and nine rebounds, said. “It feels different. We’re playing faster. We’re playing more together. I don’t know if you guys noticed, but we’re on the court, we don’t have many miscues of going backdoor, messing up like that. We have really good chemistry. That’s something that we haven’t always had in the past.
“It’s nice to be able to play with people who know where you’re going to be at before maybe even you know yourself.”
Gerlich said a lot of this year’s early-season success can be attributed to retaining and picking up the right players, ones who fit each other well and have the intangibles successful teams need.
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“We’ve got a lot of unselfish players,” Gerlich said. “They want to share the ball, they want to compete, they want to win. We have nine seniors who want this. … they want it to be the best year that they’ve played. … Their goal is all the same, and they’re not willing to have distractions or obstacles or drama or whatever it might be to keep them from reaching it.”
Texas Tech’s Jalynn Bristow drives the baseline against Mississippi State during a non-conference women’s basketball game, Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025, at United Supermarkets Arena.
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Defense carries Texas Tech women’s basketball to comeback win over Mississippi State
