photo by: Bill Kiser/Virgin Islands Daily News

Kansas' players celebrate on the court after defeating Auburn 61-60 on Saturday to win the Island Division title at the 25th Paradise Jam women's college basketball tournament at the University of the Virgin Islands' Elridge Blake Sports and Fitness Center on St. Thomas, V.I.

With the Paradise Jam’s Island Division title on the line in a matchup against Auburn, Kansas sophomore S’Mya Nichols picked up right where she left off earlier in the tournament.

After dropping 20 and 25 points in the first two games of the tournament, Nichols led the Jayhawks to a 61-60 win over the Tigers on Saturday in the U.S. Virgin Islands with 28 points and four assists, including the last five points of the game.

A quick start followed by an Auburn comeback saw Kansas go down by 12 points at the half following an offensive drought in the second quarter. But the Jayhawks came out much more solid on both ends, as a 20-7 quarter gave them a 48-47 lead heading into the final period. A back-and-forth fourth quarter led to Nichols’ takeover at the end, as she hit a step-back 3 to bring the Jayhawks within one before heading to the foul line and sinking both shots to secure the 61-60 win, with Auburn missing at the buzzer.

“I mean, all glory to my team,” Nichols said in a postgame broadcast interview after being mobbed by her teammates. “We fought, we fought hard, we had to struggle. We struggled specifically in the second quarter, and we really came through to the end. To the final second.”

Kansas started off hot with an eight-point run in the first four minutes of the game that had Nichols’ fingerprints all over it. The Jayhawks started with a layup by Sania Copeland after going scoreless in Friday’s win over Northern Iowa. Then Nichols grabbed the rebound from her own missed layup before slinging it out to Elle Evans for Kansas’ first 3 of the game. Nichols finished off the run on her own with an old-fashioned three-point play to take an 8-0 lead.

Auburn then embarked on a seven-point stretch over the next two-and-a-half minutes before Wyvette Mayberry grabbed her first points of the game with a layup. After this, the Jayhawks once again entered a scoreless spell and were ultimately outscored by the Tigers 11-2 to end the first quarter down 19-12.

The second started with a battle from the free-throw line, as a foul shot by Regan Williams got Kansas back within five. They traded off buckets, but the Jayhawks’ 2-point field goals did not match Auburn’s consistent 3s as they found themselves down 34-21 after a two-and-a-half-minute scoring drought. Once again, it was Mayberry who broke the drought with a transition layup as the last four minutes of the second were evenly matched and Kansas entered halftime facing a 40-28 deficit.

Nichols was the only Jayhawk in double-figures at the break with 11 points, as Evans cooled down from Friday’s hot streak from behind the arc and had only six points and two triples through the first 20 minutes.

“(He told us) that we were going to get back into this game brick by brick, and it’s not easy if we put ourselves into a questionable position,” Nichols said of head coach Brandon Schneider’s message to the team at the break. “And we really just fell back as a team. Culture wins games, and that’s what we just displayed.”

After taking their foot off the gas in the first half, the Jayhawks had no intentions of doing so in the third quarter. They grabbed four points in the first minute of the period, then Laia Conesa’s first 3-pointer of the game and a layup by Evans got Kansas into a 42-40 game. The Kansas defense continued its lockdown performance as Nichols and Mayberry traded off a few driving layups to give Kansas a 48-46 lead — its first since the first quarter.

Conesa answered an Auburn layup early in the fourth with a layup of her own on the next possession to retake a 50-49 lead. A few missed shots led into a transition 3-pointer for the Tigers to jump in front 52-50, off a block by DeYona Gaston. Nichols got the Jayhawks a 54-52 lead from the free throw line, but Kansas still couldn’t find its footing on the offensive end — giving up a few easy drives as an eight-point Auburn run put the Jayhawks in a six-point hole with 1:04 to play.

But after two close games to start the tournament, Kansas was prepared, as the Jayhawks drew two quick fouls to get into the bonus and Conesa sank two free throws to make it 60-56. After a timeout by Auburn, the Jayhawks’ strong defense returned, as Sania Copeland fought for a 50/50 ball to set the Jayhawks up on the offensive end.

A well-designed play had the ball in Nichols’s hands before she dropped it off to Williams up top, cut behind her to set up on the right side of the court, and hit a step-back 3 to make it a one-point game with 31 seconds to play.

Evans fouled Auburn’s Mar’Shaun Bostic — a career 63.4% free throw shooter — on the inbound, and Mayberry fought for the rebound after Bostic missed both shots. A timeout set up the Jayhawks on their own side of the court as it was all up to Nichols once again. After driving into the key and getting trapped right above the block, she was able to draw the shooting foul, sink both free throws, and give Kansas a 61-60 lead with 14.5 seconds left.

Bostic’s layup attempt against a solid Jayhawk defense down low fell short, as Kansas took the game 61-60 to win its division.

The win moved the Jayhawks to 7-1 on the season and finished out their three-game Thanksgiving slate. Kansas will have another short break to get back to Lawrence before taking on Wichita State on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in Allen Fieldhouse.