By james art 
Texas Tech women’s basketball coach Krista Gerlich saw four quarters of the grit and competitiveness she’s been craving all season.
It just happened from the other team.
Gerlich complimented the Lady Raiders’ heart in a late comeback effort, but said the effort needs to be sustained, like Oklahoma State’s, which was heard from the State Stailee. Hurd poured in a career-high 34 points to spark the Cowboys to a 71-68 victory Saturday at United Supermarkets Arena.
Tech gave up 14 heading into the final quarter and cut the deficit to one. OSU led by two when Hurd grabbed an offensive rebound, drew a foul and made both free throws with 28 seconds left.
Gerlich said the rally started when the Lady Raiders “started to compete.”
“That’s what we have to have, kids who want to compete,” Gerlich said, “no matter what happens on the court. It doesn’t matter if you take shots or not, compete. That made us heard. .
Gerlich took similar issue with the team’s lack of “fight” in an 89-53 loss to West Virginia earlier this month.
“I thought we showed a lot of fight in the fourth quarter,” Gerlich said Saturday. “Obviously the kids that were on the floor really went to war and fought to win. We’ve got to have more of that. We’ve got to learn how to do that from the top (-off). This is Big 12 basketball. We’ve got to fight for every possession.
“I thought we had some really valiant efforts from some people. But at the end of the day, it’s a loss and that’s where we are.”
Gerlich said the team’s intensity level improved in the fourth quarter and pointed to Bailey Maupin as the catalyst. Maupin scored 15 of his team-high 24 points in the second half.
The coach said that playing with the same advantage over 40 minutes will solve many problems.
“It’s a no-brainer for me,” Gerlich said. “If you fight like that for four quarters, good things will happen for you.”
OSU (17-3, 7-2) stopped Tech’s winning streak at two games to drop the Lady Raiders to 3-6 in conference play. Still, Gerlich said the team as a whole is trending in the right direction after turning around a recent five-game skid.
“I definitely think we’re playing better basketball than we did the first five conference games,” Gerlich said. “Obviously you don’t play ranked opponents, but our kids still compete. They found ways to win. I wish we could find a way to win tonight because obviously then you’re going to feel really good going into the Kansas game.
“I think our kids are playing pretty good basketball. We just went to clean up some areas.”