Kansas senior Taiyanna Jackson is jubilant on the bench against Washington during the Fab 4 round of the WNIT on Wednesday, March 29, 2023. Kansas advances with a 61-36 win over Washington.

After a sluggish start to Wednesday’s WNIT semifinal game against Washington at Allen Fieldhouse, the Kansas women’s basketball team woke up with a vengeance.

Riding the fire of a team that wanted to erase its slow start and the determination of a team that had decided to beat its opponent as badly as possible even though the outcome was basically decided by halftime, the Jayhawks rolled to a 61-36 victory over visiting Washington in front of 7,229 roaring fans on their home floor.

The victory — KU’s 24th of the season — pushed Kansas into Saturday’s WNIT title game, and they’ll face Columbia for the crown at 4:30 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

_

PHOTO GALLERY

_ 

And it was the Jayhawks’ defense that got them there. KU held Washington to 24% shooting for the game (15 of 62) and also forced 21 Huskies turnovers.

“I don’t think we forced it offensively,” said senior guard Holly Kersgieter, who finished with three steals and an all-conference level of exhaustion. “We were more worried about defense, regardless of what we were scoring. Our mindset was defense.”

That showed early. After being held scoreless for the first 3:33 of the game, Kansas got on the board when Kersgieter hit a jumper to cut the UW lead to 6-2. From there, the Jayhawks ripped off a 19-6 run to take control and closed the first half on a 28-9 run to lead 30-16 at the break.

Kersgieter, who also finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two assists, said the extra attention to the defensive end was partly the result of the scouting report and partly the result of the stakes for which KU was playing.

“We knew they were a team that really uses the shot clock,” Kersgieter said. “So, we were going to have to lock in more than we usually do. It was that and just, obviously, the situation of what we’re in.”

Added Kansas coach Brandon Schneider: “I thought, for the most part, we were really engaged all night. Our attention to detail was really good, our communication. We were able to switch to disrupt a lot and if we didn’t get a deflection I thought we at least forced them to play in space that maybe they weren’t comfortable in.

“I think this entire tournament we’ve been pretty good defensively and played a lot of different styles.”

Ten of Washington’s 21 giveaways were Kansas steals, with Kersgieter, Wyvette Mayberry (4) and Chandler Prater (2) all recording multiple takeaways.

As they tend to do, Kansas (24-11) opened the game by looking to get center Taiyanna Jackson going in the post. When the Jayhawks were able to get it to her, Washington quickly swarmed her, forcing two tie-ups in the first five minutes of Wednesday’s game. The extra attention appeared to force Jackson to second-guess herself the next couple of times she touched the ball. But that hiccup was short-lived.

“We expected that,” Kersgieter said of UW’s game plan against Jackson. “Part of the struggle was we’re supposed to communicate and let her know, like, ‘Hey, someone’s coming.’ But we (couldn’t) hear in there. We had to figure something out because she couldn’t hear what anyone was yelling at her, so we had to adjust to that.”

That was just fine with the Jayhawks, who were still in awe over the loud and proud home crowd that showered them with love throughout their latest victory.

Schneider said having that kind of atmosphere “obviously helps,” and added that the huge home-court advantage played a role in the Jayhawks’ suffocating defense.

“You could tell early that we had some nerves,” he said. “But, on the flip side, I think, defensively, it caused us to be really engaged the entire night.”

Those nerves disappeared shortly after freshman Zsofia Telegdy drained a wide-open 3-pointer to help calm down KU’s offense, slicing the early Washington lead to 6-5 with 4:08 to play in the first quarter.

“I thought it was a shot that really kind of took the lid off the basket for us,” Schneider said.

Twenty-two seconds later, Kansas grabbed its first lead on a sick display of dribbling and attacking the rim by Franklin in transition, and the game was really never close again.

Just in case the Huskies (19-15) had any hope of staging a second-half comeback, Kansas hit them with an 8-0 run to open the third quarter and cruised to victory from there.

That brought the Jayhawks one win from a WNIT title and leading scorer Zakiyah Franklin, who finished with 15 points on 5-of-8 shooting, said her and her teammates would approach their preparation for the next game the way they had for the previous five.

“It’s a great feeling right now,” Franklin said. “But we’re just trying to take it one day at a time, trying to just stay focused on the task at hand.”