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

Kansas guard S'Mya Nichols instructs a player against UCF Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 in Allen Fieldhouse.

The Kansas women’s basketball team snapped a four-game losing streak on Tuesday night, as the Jayhawks emerged from a sloppy game with a 63-58 win over UCF.

While the KU defense didn’t do much to stop a sputtering UCF offense, S’Mya Nichols’ 20 points on 6-for-12 shooting were enough to give Kansas the final boost it needed to get back in the win column.

The Jayhawks got a boost in the fourth quarter from Regan Williams, who scored nine of her 11 points in the period and sank the two game-tying buckets and the final shot to take the lead after Nichols fouled out with less than two minutes remaining in the quarter.

“She’s a huge part of our team, so obviously, when she’s in foul trouble, that definitely hurts us,” Elle Evans said postgame. “But whenever she’s in the game, we want her to be uber-aggressive and take advantage of her speed against the bigger players. So really credit to her for sticking with it, even with foul trouble, and being able to come in and execute.”

Kansas was able to shut down UCF’s leading scorer Kaitlin Peterson, holding the second-highest-scoring player in the Big 12 to only 11 points on 4-for-13 shooting, mostly thanks to Sania Copeland. While the Jayhawks had successful first-shot defense for the majority of the game, they gave up 15 offensive rebounds and grabbed only six, getting outscored 15-0 on second-chance points.

After scoring a season-high 26 points in Saturday’s game against Iowa State, KU’s Brittany Harshaw opened with the first five points of the game in two minutes. Nichols’ first points of the game gave the Jayhawks a 7-3 lead a minute later before Kansas entered a nearly five-minute scoring drought.

During this drought, UCF’s Emely Rodriguez, who averages 11 points per game, scored seven straight to give the Knights an 11-7 lead. Williams finally ended Kansas’ scoreless stretch with a layup off a pick-and-roll with Nichols, but UCF responded with a six-point run to grab its largest lead of the night up 17-9. The Jayhawks opened with seven points in the first three and a half minutes of the quarter before scoring only four in the last 6:30 as a pair of free throws by Nadira Eltayeb made it 17-11 heading into the second.

While Kansas’ defense continued to struggle in covering switches and closing gaps, Nichols kept the Jayhawks in the game with a quick five points to make it a one-point game. Rodriguez kept UCF’s lead safe with her second 3-pointer of the night and scored five of the Knights’ first nine points of the quarter to get back to an eight-point lead.

Kansas finally stepped up its defense as UCF’s shot selection became more erratic and the Jayhawks scored nine straight to take their first lead since the first quarter. The teams traded off a pair of layups and a close-range jumper apiece to make it a tie game, 31-31, heading into halftime.

“It kind of just took us a while to get settled, and I feel like that might be something that we’ve kind of struggled with this whole year, is just kind of starting games out strong,” Evans said postgame. “But really proud of our effort at the end to kind of settle in and be able to go on that run, to put us in a good spot coming out of halftime.”

The third quarter started with seven straight misses as Nichols drew two offensive fouls from Rodriguez to get her to three fouls on the night. Williams, however, also picked up her third foul, sending her to the bench early in the half. Evans finally knocked the lid off the basket with her first 3 of the night, but UCF took a 36-34 lead heading into the media timeout.

The Jayhawks tied things up with a pair of free throws from Nichols before UCF, which averages 4.3 made 3-pointers a game, sank three in a row to take an eight-point lead. A baseline jumper by Nadira Eltayeb off an assist by Evans gave Kansas only its second field goal of the quarter with 1:36 left. A 3-pointer by Harshaw and a pair of free throws from Nichols put the Jayhawks on a game-saving five-point run to head into the final quarter trailing 47-46.

After she had scored only two points in the first three quarters, Kansas made great use of Williams in the fourth, starting things off by using a dump-off from Evans down low to grab a 48-47 lead. A Nichols and-1 gave the Jayhawks a two-point lead before she picked up her fourth foul on a charge, sending her to the bench with 7:41 to play. This prompted five straight points from UCF before Williams scored three in a row to tie things with 4:15 left.

After a layup by the Knights’ Achol Akot, Williams tied it up again with a pair of free throws before Nichols used a beautiful move to get past her defender for a lefty lay-in to retake a 58-56 lead.

On the other end, Nichols was called for a charge, her fifth foul of the game which took her out with 1:20 to play and gave UCF a chance to take the lead with a three-point play. But the Knights missed the free throw and a second-chance shot, and Williams put the game on ice with a short jumper. As the teams traded five timeouts in the last 36 seconds, Evans sank a pair of free throws to make it a four-point game before Harshaw went 1-for-2 to lead Kansas to a 63-58 win.

“We just had to continue to try to get stops and secure rebounds,” head coach Brandon Schneider said of his message to the team in the fourth quarter. “I thought our first-shot defense was pretty good most of the night, and then late third quarter, early fourth quarter, we were giving up too many second-chance opportunities. So down the stretch, I thought we’d do a much better job finishing plays.”

The Jayhawks, who improved to 15-11 and 5-10 in Big 12 play, will look to hold onto their momentum heading into the second edition of this year’s Sunflower Showdown when they head to Manhattan on Saturday for a 3 p.m. start.