LSU To Face Seventh-Seeded Texas Tech On Sunday

By ANDRE CHAMPAGNE, Tiger Rag Staff Reporter

The Baton Rouge Round of 32 matchup is officially set for Sunday. The second-seeded LSU women’s basketball team will face seventh-seeded Texas Tech at 2 p.m. CT inside the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. The game will be televised on ABC.

Texas Tech (26-7, 12-6 Big 12 Conference) advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with a gritty 57-52 win over 10th-seeded Villanova on Friday night.

Round of 32 loading ⏳ @LadyRaiderWBB

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— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessWBB) March 21, 2026

Both teams struggled to take care of the ball, contributing to the low-scoring affair. The Lady Raiders turned the ball over 20 times, an issue head coach Krista Gerlich said must improve against LSU, which thrives on turning defense into offense.

“Clearly, I think we can defend, but we can’t defend turnovers,” Gerlich said after the win. “When we turn the basketball over, that leads to easy buckets and we turned the ball over a lot tonight. And we’re going to have to do a much better job of taking care of it. We’re going to have to be super gritty and tough and rebound the basketball and not allow second chance opportunities, but I do think that our defense is what’s gotten us here and that’s what we’ll have to rely on to stay in the game.”

Despite the challenge awaiting her team, Gerlich is confident the Lady Raiders are battle-tested and ready to go.

“The thing about our kids is that we have some really big wins in our conference,” Gerlich said. “You know, we beat TCU, we beat Baylor twice, we beat West Virginia at their place and all of those teams are really good basketball teams and they’re playing in this tournament at a really high level. So I don’t think we’re going to be intimidated by any means. We’ve played on the road before in really great environments and this is what it’s all about and we want that tall task and we understand that it is one.”

Texas Tech head coach on facing #LSU:

"I don’t think we’re going to be intimidated by any means. We’ve played on the road before in really great environments and this is what it’s all about and we want that tall task and we understand that it is one.”

Should be a fun one.

— Andre Champagne (@andrechampagnee) March 21, 2026

This marks Texas Tech’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2005. The Lady Raiders roster features 11 upperclassmen, including nine seniors, and Gerlich is leaning on that experience as Tech prepares for its biggest game in nearly two decades.

“They don’t want it to end. They want to keep playing together and so they have a little more of a desperation when they play,” Gerlich said.