Blacklock, Fritz Deliver in Emotional Texas Tech Senior Day Win

Texas Tech didn’t have its usual firepower Sunday. It had something better.

“We just have each other’s backs,” head coach Krista Gerlich said.

On Senior Day, that was enough. Maybe it always is — maybe that’s how this group ended up here despite the smallest of outside expectations after being picked to finish 13th.

Behind timely leadership and a game winning third quarter run, the Lady Raiders ground out a 58-51 win over Arizona State to close the regular season at 25-6 overall and 12-6 in Big 12 play — the program’s most conference wins since 2005 and a résumé that should have Texas Tech headed back to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013.

Early on, the game felt heavy.

With families packed into the stands and emotions running high, the Lady Raider seniors struggled to find rhythm as a group. That’s when the lone junior in the rotation stepped forward.

Jalynn Bristow poured in 12 of Texas Tech’s first 14 points, carrying the offense through the opening stretch while others settled in. It was a steadying burst exactly when Tech needed it — buying time until the rest of the group could find its footing.

Gerlich joked afterward that she usually addresses everyone but the seniors before Senior Day, urging them to play their hearts out for the graduating class. With nine seniors and just one junior in the rotation, though, she flipped the message — telling the seniors to fight for each other.

It still didn’t surprise her to see Bristow battling just as hard for them, turning in one of her best stretches of the season exactly when the Lady Raiders needed it most.

“I was like, yeah that kid’s playing for her seniors because she loves those girls very, very much,” said Gerlich of Bristow’s performance. “That’s exactly what you want to do for them.”

Then the game handed them an unexpected hurdle.

Snudda Collins went down injured in the second quarter. A senior and second leading scorer at over 15 points per game left straight for the locker room after a hard hit on a screen. Add to it that leading scorer Bailey Maupin was struggling to find space against a physical Arizona State defense and it was looking a bit bleak offensively.

What now?

Texas Tech managed to grind its way to halftime down just 27-25, but Collins never returned from the locker room. Someone else would have to step up. With nine seniors the options were there, but the question was who would it be?

In a season full of moments that feel almost scripted, it felt fitting that it was the Lubbock native, Adlee Blacklock, who came home to answer the call.

Right beside her was battle-tested transfer Denae Fritz — the veteran Gerlich had chased for years — steadying the late huddles when Texas Tech needed it most.

For Blacklock, the moment carries layers and perhaps foreshadowing? Texas Tech faithful can only hope.

The Lubbock native originally left home when the program was in turmoil, honoring her commitment to Oregon State while Texas Tech searched for its footing. This being the very time period that opened the door for Gerlich to take the job and begin rebuilding the Lady Raiders. Blacklock experienced the full arc in Corvallis: a double-digit losing streak and bottom-of-the-league finish as a freshman, followed by a stunning rise to a Pac-12 contender and NCAA Tournament Elite Eight run as a sophomore.

Sound familiar? Texas Tech lost nine in a row and finished near the bottom of the Big 12 in Blacklock’s first year in Lubbock last season.

Now back in Lubbock at Tech for her senior year, on senior day, in her home town. Blacklock delivered the emotional swing Tech needed to complete their own bounce back season. Pressed into extended minutes at the four after Collins’ exit, she scored six straight points in the final minute of the third quarter — first burying a three, then calmly sinking three free throws after being fouled as the horn approached.

“I honestly like blacked out after I made the first three,” Blacklock said. “I was just thankful I was able to come in and pick up the slack.”

As a Lubbock native, the crowd is always on her side and certainly was in this moment causing one of the loudest pops of the night.

“It’s always just special getting to play in front of the town that I grew up in,” Blacklock said, pausing as she got emotional. “Just to feel the community’s support and hearing them…it never gets old for me.”

Gerlich was just as emphatic about what Blacklock gave them in the moment.

“She was able to come in and give us some really good minutes and give us a little lift in the third quarter as well,” Gerlich said before expanding on how Blacklock even ended up back in Lubbock. “And honestly, I think there was some divine intervention there. She was in a really good situation there before the Pac-12 broke a part. It opened the door for her to come home and really live out a dream she’s had since she was a little girl.”

While Blacklock’s shots capped a 16-2 run to end the third and give Texas Tech control for the first time, it was Fritz who started it. The senior co-captain knocked down a huge momentum three that gave the Lady Raiders a lead they would only build from there.

A long awaited vision playing out. Gerlich had tried to bring the veteran guard to Lubbock multiple times before finally landing her last year and Saturday showed exactly why Gerlich wanted her here. Fritz, as one who has lived these big March moments, became the steady voice in the huddles late.

“If you could have been in our huddles, she was leading them… telling us to finish games, telling us to keep composed,” Gerlich said.

Fritz, humble as always, kept it simple. She just hit the shots y’all, that easy, right?

“I mean, coach has been telling me to shoot the ball when I’m open,” Fritz said. “I just shot it… and it went in.”

With Collins sidelined in the final half, Fritz — whose journey through Iowa State and Baylor included deep postseason experience — scored all 10 of her points after the break. She sensed the moment because she knows what those runs feel like. Most of all she is eager to experience it with this team in Lubbock, a place she now calls home.

“It’s a very special run and I’m just really hoping that this team gets to experience that,” Fritz said. “You just got to buy into being 1-0. And I’m just really thankful this fanbase has embraced me the way they have.”

Texas Tech carried that momentum through a tense fourth quarter, leaning on a veteran team overall to close it out. Against a team in ASU that was fighting for their postseason lives, that’s not easy – but Tech managed to get it done.

“It was a complete team effort,” Gerlich said.

Now the regular season is complete: 25 wins, the program’s best Big 12 mark in two decades, and what should be a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2013 firmly within reach.

“I’m not sure 25 and six was on our radar,” Gerlich said briefly allowing herself to think about what this group has accomplished. “It’s been such a joy and such a great ride with this group… I’m still going, ‘We won 25 games?’ That’s crazy to me.”

Gerlich quickly added the bigger picture remains ahead.

“We’ve got a lot more basketball to play.”

Next stop: Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament. Texas Tech enters as the No. 5 seed after losing the tiebreaker to Oklahoma State for the fourth spot and will open play at 11 a.m. Thursday against the winner of Kansas State and Cincinnati.

Photo Gallery: Texas Tech vs. Arizona State