No. 17 Texas Tech women’s basketball is home again Saturday afternoon for a Big 12 matchup with a new-look Kansas State team that has continued to improve as conference play has progressed.
The Wildcats enter Lubbock at 9–9 overall and 2–3 in league play. After graduating out some all-timers in Serena Sundell and Ayoka Lee, it’s a young but very talented Wildcats group that has shown flashes of what they can be mixed with natural growing pains. While Kansas State dropped its most recent game to Utah, 80–73, the Wildcats have played right with most of their opponents this season and even taken down No. 13 Ole Miss before Big 12 play began.
“They’re gelling really well,” Texas Tech head coach Krista Gerlich said. “I feel like every four years he goes through this because he retains his kids and they grow up in his system.”
Kansas State’s growth has been driven in large part by its defensive pressure. In Big 12 play, the Wildcats are forcing 21 turnovers per game and scoring 22 points per game off turnovers, ranking second in the conference during that span. This is marked improvement from non-conference were only forcing 15.3 turnovers a game and scoring only 13.7 points off those turnovers.
“They change their defenses up, which I think poses a problem,” Gerlich noted when asked what has led to that improvement in her eyes. “They jump in a press and their press is pretty active. They’ll jump between a man and a zone, so I think sometimes there’s confusion on the offense’s part. At the end of the day, they just play super hard and get their hands on a lot of basketballs.“
Offensively, Kansas State’s scoring balance has evolved. Tess Heal has emerged as the Wildcats’ leading scorer in Big 12 play after Taryn Sides carried much of the load earlier in the season. Heal is averaging 17.8 points per game in conference action.
Kansas State also features Nastja Claessens, a skilled, crafty forward who adds versatility to the frontcourt. Claessens notably was selected 30th overall in the 2024 WNBA Draft but did not elect to join th Washington Mystics and instead played professionally in Europe. The Wildcats were able to bring her over late in the offseason before the start of the 2025-26 season and get her eligible to play, with two-years of eligibility. The 6-1 junior is averaging 11.4 points and 4.2 rebounds a game.
“They have a lot of different weapons,” Gerlich said. “It’s really hard to help in on them.”
After being selected to finish the Big 12 13th in the preseason coaches poll, Texas Tech enters the matchup sitting atop the Big 12 standings at 6-0. Meanwhile Kansas State was picked to finish 6th. Perhaps a further example of why preseason rankings are silly but it’s not something Texas Tech gets too caught up in. Although they aren’t losing their chip either.
“We definitely have a chip on our shoulder when it comes to that,” said Gerlich. “But they [the players] are not really concerned about it. They just know the next game that we play is the biggest game on our schedule.”
Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. inside United Supermarkets Arena. A large crowd is expected once again as the USA has gradually began to fill back up just as Coach Gerlich remembers it from her playing days.
“It makes my heart very happy, for sure, because that’s one of the goals that I had taking over — that we wanted to bring Lady Raider basketball back to a place where we would fill up the stands and have a lot of pride in our program. We’ve got a lot of women’s basketball fans in this area. They love the Lady Raiders. They love girls basketball. We just needed to give them something to cheer about.”
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