Bailey Maupin quells Texas Tech women's basketball fourth-quarter woes
Much had been made of Texas Tech's recent struggles in the fourth quarter. Bailey Maupin halted the trend with big plays in crunch time vs. Villanova.
BATON ROUGE, La. — The Texas Tech women's basketball team entered March Madness with a limp. Up 14 points in the fourth quarter of Big 12 Tournament quarterfinals against Kansas State, everything came crashing down.
The Wildcats ended on a 21-0 run that saw the Lady Raiders scoreless for nearly eight minutes. The stunning result continued a worrisome trend for Tech, which also sputtered late in losses at Colorado and Kansas to close February. Lady Raiders coach Krista Gerlich vowed the nightmarish stretch against KSU would never happen again — couldn't happen again.
Bailey Maupin made sure to back her up. Despite struggles in the first half, the senior guard turned it on late in Friday's NCAA Tournament opener against Villanova. Maupin missed her first six shots but flurried down the stretch in Tech's 57-52 win at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center.
Fifteen of her team-high 17 points came after halftime, including seven in the final stanza as the Lady Raiders staved off the pesky Wildcats. There's no alarm clock, Maupin said. No Spidey-Sense that alerts her to make a big play.