photo by: Kahner Sampson/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas guard Elle Evans (21) gives the ball to teammate S'Mya Nichols (12) during the game against North Alabama on Sunday, Nov. 17, 2024, in Lawrence.

After four home victories, the Kansas women’s basketball team took to the road for a neutral-site game against the Iowa Hawkeyes in the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, on Wednesday, and suffered its first loss of the season in a 71-58 defeat.

The Jayhawks, who dropped to 4-1, faced their first real challenge of the young season in the undefeated Hawkeyes, who returned two of their starters from a season ago, when they were national runners-up, and added an outside threat in Villanova transfer Lucy Olsen. Iowa’s balanced scoring overcame the Jayhawks as all nine of its players that saw playing time scored at least two points.

“We didn’t make shots and have the kind of aggression that you have to start a game like this,” KU coach Brandon Schneider said in a press release. “I thought we settled down and played more aggressive the last three quarters. Credit to the Iowa fans, this was a terrific environment.”

On Kansas’ end, it was all on S’Mya Nichols and Elle Evans to bring the offense as the duo combined for 48 of Kansas’ 58 points with 26 and 22, respectively. Regan Williams used two good battles down low to grab four points while Sania Copeland and Wyvette Mayberry hit a single 3-pointer each on the night.

Kansas did not have a good start to its first game of the season away from Allen Fieldhouse, as the Jayhawks made one field goal in the first quarter of the inter-conference matchup against Iowa. The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 5-0 lead before an Elle Evans jumper got Kansas on the board just over two minutes into the game. A minute later, S’Mya Nichols went to the line and sunk both of her free throws to get Kansas back into a three-point deficit at 7-4.

From here, Iowa embarked on a completely unchallenged 11-point run during which the Jayhawks went 0-for-7 on the floor and gave up four turnovers and Iowa went 3-for-6 to shoot 50% in the first period and take an 18-4 lead into the second quarter of action against a debilitated Kansas.

Nichols got the Jayhawks on the right foot with four early points in the second, doubling their score and putting a bit of pressure on the Hawkeyes. KU’s defense improved, holding Iowa to seven points in a crucial stretch, before Evans and Nichols mounted a big surge, scoring 11 points in less than three minutes as the defense continued to hold strong and Evan’s 12th point of the night made it 31-22. Iowa got into the bonus to end the half with a run from the charity stripe to take a 38-27 into halftime.

The Hawkeyes and Jayhawks traded off points to start the second half, as Kansas’ defense still struggled but its offense found its groove. Nichols and Evans continued to carry the Jayhawks before Mayberry got involved in the scoring with a 3-pointer on an assist by Williams. Williams got her second field goal of the night as she rebounded a miss by Copeland for a putback that got Kansas back within 10 points at 44-34.

But just as the Jayhawks got back in the game, they allowed a 10-3 Iowa run to force Schneider to take his first timeout of the half in an attempt to regroup his team and calm them down on the defensive end. Their precision from deep kept them in the match after the break as Evans and Nichols hit one each to end the third down 58-46.

Nichols started the fourth for the Jayhawks by drawing fouls on three straight possessions, and KU briefly made it 60-50. After that, Kansas once again lost its shooting touch and committed a slew of fouls to spur a five-point Hawkeye run. The Jayhawks got back into an offensive rhythm, but with another string of fouls, they ran out of time to mount any significant comeback. Copeland scored her first points of the game on Kansas’ last scoring play with a 3-pointer that cemented a 71-58 defeat in Kansas’ first loss of the season.

An Iowa defense that struggled in a couple of its first games of the season — allowing 73 points to a talented Drake squad — stepped up big in front of a sellout crowd of mostly Hawkeye fans at Sanford Pentagon, holding the Jayhawks to 45 points from the floor on 36.5% shooting.

First-year Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said postgame in an interview on the Big Ten Network that she was most pleased with the Hawkeyes’ defensive performance.

“We held them to four in that first quarter, and, I’ll have to watch the film, but I think they only missed three (shots) that they should have made,” she said. “I felt like it was just a defensive win tonight. Our offense, we just didn’t get that rhythm, but we did enough to do what we needed to do to get a really good win.”

After this initial test, Kansas’ season will continue to ramp up, as the Jayhawks will head to the U.S. Virgin Islands for the Paradise Jam, where the Jayhawks will face Pittsburgh, Northern Iowa and Auburn during the Thanksgiving weekend.