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

Kansas forward Regan Williams acknowledges a play by a teammate against Missouri on Saturday, Nov. 15, 2025 in Kansas City, Mo.

After a tough two-game stretch in Fort Myers, Florida, for Kansas women’s basketball, the Jayhawks had a chance to bounce back on Wednesday evening with a road matchup against the Northwestern Wildcats, and took advantage with a 74-62 win.

On the back of a 22-point performance by sophomore forward Regan Williams, Kansas shook off a rocky first quarter that saw it score just six points. Jayhawk guards senior Elle Evans and junior S’Mya Nichols both finished in double digits as well, with Evans finishing with 15 and Nichols tallying 14.

Nichols got the first points of the game when she drove to the basket and laid it in for the Jayhawks. It was a defense-heavy quarter, with Kansas starting 1-for-7 from the field and Northwestern starting 2-for-12.

Northwestern made a quick 3-pointer and then took advantage of a sloppy turnover by the Jayhawks to extend its lead to seven just one minute after the stoppage. After the Wildcats made another 3, Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider had seen enough and called his first timeout of the evening, with Northwestern leading 14-4. The 10-0 run finally concluded when Williams fought her way to the rim for two points, but the Jayhawks went into the break trailing 16-6.

In the second, the Jayhawks started to attack the paint, and that strategy worked well. Williams scored twice to open the quarter and brought the Jayhawks to within six and then senior forward Lilly Meister worked up and over a defender to find her first points of the game.

With just over six minutes left in the second, freshman guard Keeley Parks drove through the paint for the and-1 score and brought Kansas within three for the first time since the opening minutes of the game. But a quick bucket on the other side for Northwestern’s Tayla Thomas extended the Wildcat lead once again.

After the two teams traded nylon for a few possessions, the under-five timeout finally brought a gritty second quarter to a pause with Northwestern leading 24-21. Out of the stoppage, Williams added to her stellar first half with another bucket and pulled the Jayhawks within one. The Wildcats scored again, but Parks nailed her first 3 of the game to knot it up at 26.

Back-to-back makes from Northwestern gave the Wildcats a five point lead, and the two teams traded scores until the end of the half, with Northwestern leading Kansas 34-30 at halftime.

The Jayhawks shot 73.3% from the field in the second quarter after shooting just 21.4% in the first. That improvement was in large part due to Williams, who was 7-for-9 for 14 points in the single quarter.

The momentum that Kansas built in the second carried over into the third. Nichols got things started for the Jayhawks by drawing a foul and making both free-throw attempts, and Williams tied things at 34. Another made bucket by Williams gave Kansas its first lead since the start of the game and also brought her point total to 20 just two minutes into the second half.

The Jayhawks lead was as big as four, but Northwestern guard Grace Sullivan scored on three consecutive offensive possessions and the Wildcats tied it at 40. After Northwestern made its first 3-point bucket of the second half, Evans joined the party and made consecutive 3s to give Kansas its biggest lead of the game to that point at 48-43.

Both teams slowed down offensively near the end of the quarter, before the Jayhawks turned up the heat once more. Evans got it started with an uncontested layup, and a turnover from the Wildcats gave Nichols a chance to take it down the court for two points. On the next possession for Northwestern, the Wildcats turned the ball over again, and this time it was junior guard Laia Conesa who went coast to coast to extend the Kansas lead to 56-47 as time expired in the third.

Nichols and Evans got things started in the fourth quarter with a pair of makes to extend the Kansas lead to 11. The Jayhawk defense settled in for the next two minutes before Parks knocked down a 3-pointer to grow the lead. Williams got her first points of the final quarter four minutes in when she fought through contact for two, setting her new career high with 22 on the evening.

The Northwestern offense stalled out once again with five minutes left on the clock and the Wildcats trailing big. Northwestern was 0-for-5 from the field until it finally got a bucket with 1:42 left. Both teams exchanged barbs in the final minute but the deficit was too much for the Wildcats to overcome as the Jayhawks took home a 74-62 victory.

The win over Northwestern was the first for the Jayhawks on the road against a Big Ten opponent since Nov. 21, 2010, when Kansas took down the Wisconsin Badgers on the road.

Kansas (7-2) now heads for its final swing of a four game road trip with a quick stop in Springfield, Missouri, to take on the Missouri State Lady Bears. That game is scheduled for Sunday and is slated to tip off at 2 p.m.

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