Photos by Clay Maxfield
HEADLINED BY seven underclassmen, Purdue women’s basketball (5-3) is a group that, while young, has the makings of a team that can compete with the likes of any opposition this season. While they’re still a work in progress on offensive, they’ve shown that their defensive approach has them in the driver’s seat toward success.
Regarding said defense, guard Destini Lombard notes that it’s that ability to get in the passing lanes and deter opponents that will kick-start them on the offensively moving forward.
“It just increases our confidence when we make those winning plays. Getting those steals allows us to play in transition, make the easy plays, and we don’t have to come down and set up a play. … We’re able to get our shooters involved and that’s what a defensive edge like that does for us moving forward,” said Lombard following their recent 60-51 win over Maine on Wednesday, December 4.
In four of their five wins this season, the Boilers held opponents to 35 percent shooting from the field or worse while giving up 47 percent to UT Arlington in a 73-55 win before Thanksgiving.
For a team still finding its way, the three senior transfers have set the tone this season as senior forward Reagan Bass touched on the importance of her and her fellow upperclassmen’s energy.
“I would say it’s just that extra fight and extra want to,” Bass said. “Us having that experience and being able to lead the younger girls along helps fuel the entire team, the entire bench so there’s not a drop off when the subs come in. We come out and it’s just about hyping everyone up.”
Noting the mentality they had coming out of halftime on Wednesday after trailing by six, Bass said, “It’s who wants to get it done? What do you want to do? You’ve kind of got to force your will on people. We kind of slacked off a little in the second quarter and if we want to be that threat that we want to be this year, it starts now, it starts in this game.”
Photos by Clay Maxfield
Bass, Lombard, and Ella Collier, three of Purdue’s four 2025 transfers, have combined for nearly 50 percent of the team’s 67.4 points per game scoring average this season. The trio will be the Boilers’ staples during the 2025 campaign, but head coach Katie Gearlds is also looking to build for the future behind guard Amiyah Reynolds.
“It just allows us to play with better pace,” Gearlds said. “We want to play fast but there’s just a calmness and she’s going to get more and more comfortable. This is game eight of her college career. … I told her before the game, I’ve been dreaming of her being our starting point guard since I saw her in high school so it’s good to have her out there.”
Reynolds, a redshirt freshman, comes from South Bend, Indiana where she starred at South Bend Washington and was named an Indiana All-Star as a junior and senior before an injury in the final year of her varsity career caused her to miss all last season with Purdue.
This season, she’s averaged double figures in minutes played and posted a season high of 27 minutes on Wednesday, when she ran much of the offense and registered just one turnover.
Photos by Clay Maxfield
Behind transfers who bring experience to the team or an underclass that looks to be the program’s foundation, it’s games like the one against Maine where Gearlds will see flexibility within her team—it took a bit of everything to pull out the win.
“Sometimes we have a very young ball club out there that is learning how to play through adversity. A lot of times through the second half, we just went a little more mature, trying to make sure our lineup is right so if we weren’t making the shots, we had experience to get it done on the other end of the floor,” Gearlds said.
And with back-to-back home contests against top 15 ranked teams in Maryland and Kentucky looming, it’s again the defense she feels will keep them in games.
“Defense has been our biggest step,” Gearlds said. “UTA, Middle Tennessee, Maine, keeping them in the 50s is huge for us. That’s been our biggest area of growth. Big Ten play, the competition is different and the level is higher but if we can stay locked into that, we’ll give ourselves a chance.”
