photo by: Bill Kiser/Virgin Islands Daily News

Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider, center, talks to his players during a timeout in the first half of Friday's second Island Division game in the 25th Paradise Jam women's college basketball tournament at the University of the Virgin Islands' Elridge Baker Sports and Fitness Center on St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands.

The Kansas women’s basketball team is trending up after a pair of hard-fought wins on the opening two days of the Paradise Jam multi-team event in the U.S. Virgin Islands — both over teams nicknamed the Panthers.

Already having beaten Pitt on Thursday at the Elridge Blake Sports and Fitness Center, the Jayhawks took down opportunistic Northern Iowa 76-73 on Friday afternoon, preventing UNI from another power-conference upset after its recent victory over Iowa State and one-point loss to Auburn.

On Saturday, it’ll be the Jayhawks’ turn to take on Auburn — the Tigers, not the Panthers — which just beat Pitt in much more dominant fashion, 82-50. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m. Central Time.

KU 59, Pitt 53

After a slow start, sophomore guard S’Mya Nichols put the Jayhawks on her back in the fourth quarter, scoring 15 of her 20 points in those 10 minutes. She led Kansas in scoring on the day, while Elle Evans kept the Jayhawks fighting in the first half with 19 points of her own, as she cleared the 1,000-point mark for her college career, which began at North Dakota State. Laia Conesa added 12 points for Kansas in what head coach Brandon Schneider called “her best game at Kansas.”

A high-scoring first quarter got the Jayhawks out to an early 20-12 lead, as Evans and Conesa combined for 14 points on 6-for-12 shooting. This standard would not hold for the rest of the game, though, as turnovers, fouls, and poor shooting on both ends had Kansas ahead 28-19 at halftime after a 15-point second quarter.

Pitt snuck back into the game with a seven-point run to start the second half that made it a two-point game before the Jayhawks got their first field goal of the third via Nadira Eltayeb. KU soon retook a 33-28 lead, as Evans completed the three-point play from the free throw line to get to exactly 1,000 points in her career. But a five-point run by Pitt tied things up before Nichols sank a pair of free throws to give the Jayhawks a slim advantage heading into the final period.

The Panthers came out with a four-point run to take their first lead since it was 3-2, but Nichols and Regan Williams helped the Jayhawks get back out to a 43-37 lead. It was back-and-forth for the majority of the rest of the quarter, but Kansas outscored the Panthers quite effectively, especially from the free throw line, to secure the 59-53 victory.

“I thought we really executed well in the fourth quarter on both ends of the floor,” Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said in a press release. “We did some good things down the stretch and made free throws.”

KU 76, UNI 73

Nichols once again led the Jayhawks in their 76-73 win over Northern Iowa on Friday, as she grabbed 25 points for her fourth straight 20-point game of the year, winning the battle against the nation’s No. 2 scorer in Northern Iowa’s Maya McDermott (16 points).

“That’s a really good team we faced today with an elite player,” Schneider said postgame. “We made a few mistakes early, but we got ourselves back on track and I was pleased with how assignment-correct we were for the most part. Offensively, what I really like is 17 assists on 21 made baskets, I thought we moved it better today and shared the ball well.”

While 11 of her points came from the free throw line, Nichols had control of the ball all game, dishing out seven assists and grabbing a career-high five steals. Evans notched her second double-figure game of the tournament with 17 points as she led Kansas in the first half with three made 3s.

The Jayhawks’ 14 made 3-pointers got them a new season high, as Wyvette Mayberry (10 points) and Sania Copeland (11 points) each hit a pair from beyond the arc.

Kansas started hot, hitting three 3-pointers in a 9-9 game, but then got held without a point for over six minutes and finished the first quarter down 13-12. The second quarter featured much more scoring, as a 14-3 stretch and four triples gave the Jayhawks a 26-16 lead. The Panthers answered with a 10-2 run of their own to get within two, but Kansas’ defense shut them down as the Jayhawks scored the last six points of the quarter to take a 34-26 lead into halftime.

Again and again, UNI cut into the Jayhawks’ margin, first using a 3-pointer by McDermott and three free throws by Kayba Laube to get as close as 42-40, then a fast-break layup by Shateah Wetering to make it 52-50.

KU initially got some much-needed distance from the Panthers on one of Mayberry’s 3-pointers with one second left in the third quarter, only for UNI to get as close as 58-57 and even have a pair of chances to take the lead with McDermott and Elise Jaeger.

Instead, Nichols and Evans hit back-to-back 3s, and Nichols added another soon after with 6:43 remaining.

The Jayhawks got up by as many as 10 points with 2:25 remaining on a pair of free throws by Evans, but a near-disastrous last minute, including a 3-pointer by Laube with 12 seconds left that made the score just 75-73, resulted in the much closer final margin.

— Sports Editor Henry Greenstein contributed to this story.