photo by: Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas guard Carla Osma yells out in celebration after guard Regan Williams scored while being fouled against Wichita State Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 in Allen Fieldhouse.

Coming back to Lawrence after wrapping up a 3-0 trip to the Virgin Islands last week, Kansas women’s basketball kept things rolling with a 70-60 win over Wichita State on Thursday.

S’Mya Nichols, Kansas’ top scorer, got into foul trouble early and played only 20 minutes, but her teammates stepped in to fill her shoes. Elle Evans had 15 points, going 3-for-9 from deep, and freshman Regan Williams had one of her best games of the season, scoring 13 and grabbing 11 rebounds for her first career double-double.

“I think I’ve been learning something new every game,” Williams said postgame. “So just practice, building on to (what I have), because college is a whole new, different atmosphere, so I’m just learning each and every day.”

“She’s just getting more and more confident, playing against such great competition in the Virgin Islands,” head coach Brandon Schneider added. “She doesn’t have any fear and has an exceptional motor. I thought she had some key baskets tonight, but more importantly some really, really important offensive rebounds that gave us some extra possessions.”

Heading into halftime tied at 33, Kansas stepped up its defensive pressure in the second half, forcing 10 turnovers and holding the Shockers to 9-for-24 shooting while Evans and Laia Conesa compensated for Nichols’ absence on the offensive end.

A slow start to the game had the Jayhawks down 6-5 at the five-minute mark before a six-point run got them their largest lead of the night with 3:30 to play. The Shockers tied things with a five-point run of their own, and then Nichols took over as she did so often in Kansas’ Paradise Jam tournament last week, scoring seven straight before the Jayhawks allowed a 3 on Wichita State’s last possession to take an 18-14 lead into the second.

The Shockers built on their long-range success to end the first, as Taylor Jameson sank three straight triples to build a 23-18 lead. Kansas grabbed its first points of the quarter after a flagrant foul and Nichols added on a layup for its first field goal of the period to make it a one-point game.

Princess Anderson’s five straight points extended the Shocker lead until another layup by Nichols stopped the bleeding. The teams traded off free throws to get back into a one-possession game before Laia Conesa took over the scoring for the last two minutes of the quarter, hitting a crucial 3-pointer to tie the score before grabbing her own rebound on the next possession for a buzzer-beating lay-in to head to the break again tied at 33.

Once again, the second half started slowly with Kansas leading 39-35 with six minutes to play on a steal by Carla Osma, before Conesa found her wide open on the block at the other end to grab the four-point lead.

More importantly, Nichols picked up her fourth foul 20 seconds into the half, and was sent to the bench for the next 15 minutes of play.

A pair of free throws and three-pointers were traded before Evans sank her second triple of the quarter to get Kansas back in front 43-40. A seven-point run by the Shockers gave them the lead back and a third 3 from Evans had the Jayhawks heading into the final period down 49-46.

“Obviously S’Mya is a huge part of our team, so whenever we have her on the bench other people need to step in,” Evans said. “So (I) was just kind of doing whatever I needed to do in that moment, so luckily I hit some shots at that point.”

Trading off shots for the first four minutes, Kansas regained a 54-52 lead before a huge forced turnover and 3-pointer by Sania Copeland for only her second field goal of the game, which set the Jayhawks up for a timeout to bring Nichols back into game action with five minutes left in the quarter.

“Right now, she’s our best defender in terms of perimeter players,” Schneider said of Copeland. “She got some key deflections and steals and hit a huge 3, and got to the free throw line. I thought she also did a really good job of getting in the paint and finding open shooters.”

With Nichols returning, the sophomore did what she does best, rumbling downhill to collapse the defense for a few shot-fake jumpers and heading to the foul line. Playing only five minutes in the quarter, Nichols went 4-for-4 from the line and scored six points, finishing with 19 overall to secure Kansas’ hard-fought win after her 15 minutes of absence in the second half.

With a Wichita State staff that knows Kansas well, the Jayhawks faced an additional challenge on Thursday on top of a competitive in-state rivalry. The Shockers’ head coach, Terry Nooner, spent three years with Schneider as an assistant coach before heading to Wichita after the 2022-23 season.

“We know they want to come in on our home floor and we know they’re going to give us their best game,” Evans said. “So we just need to know they’re going to be attacking us and we need to attack them first and not let anyone come in here and give it to us on our home floor.”

By overcoming yet another test, the Jayhawks moved to 8-1 on the season, and will face another close-proximity opponent in Kansas City as the Roos make their way to Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

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