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

Kansas guard Regan Williams is fouled while making a basket against Wichita State Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024 in Allen Fieldhouse.

The Kansas women’s basketball team got back on track in conference play on Saturday against the best offensive team in the Big 12.

Oklahoma State had averaged 87.4 points per game in their prior 13 contests, and 82.5 in its first two conference matchups. But Kansas’ defense stepped up to hold OSU to 66 on 36% shooting in a 75-66 win at Gallagher-Iba Arena, its sixth victory in a row over the Cowgirls.

Sophomore guard S’Mya Nichols scored 27 points for her fourth straight 20-point game and led all scorers, while freshman forward Regan Williams showed out with a career-high 18 before fouling out late in the fourth quarter. Elle Evans kept the offense going on the wing with 15 points while swatting a season-high three blocks and collecting six rebounds.

Evans got the scoring started for the Jayhawks by hitting a pair of free throws to tie the game early in the first, before a steal by Williams set up Laia Conesa for a 3-pointer in transition to give Kansas its first lead of the game. The Jayhawks stayed in front for the rest of the quarter, as Williams and Nichols added on a pair of jumpers to put them ahead 9-6. Then Nichols scored Kansas’ next nine points, including an eight-point run of her own, to put the Jayhawks up 18-10 and force a timeout by Oklahoma State. The Cowgirls hit a pair of free throws and KU took a six-point lead into the second period.

Fighting back from an Oklahoma State 3-pointer to start the quarter, Williams completed an old-fashioned three-point play to get Kansas back to an eight-point lead. From then on, though, OSU went on a run to the game at 25, and eventually took a 30-29 lead into the second half.

Nichols led all players with 13 points prior to the break while Williams added on nine points of her own. Oklahoma State’s Stailee Heard led the Cowgirls with 11 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead all players, while her teammate Jadyn Wooten added on eight points and two assists.

Mirroring its high-scoring first quarter, Kansas scored 22 points in the third, but the Jayhawks weren’t able to hold things down on the defensive end, and the Cowgirls kept up with 20 points as Heard continued to lead the way.

The quarter started slow until Heard and Nichols traded off a pair of 3s. Then a seven-point run gave the Cowgirls their largest lead of the game as Kansas was forced to call timeout down 41-32. Out of the timeout, Oklahoma State’s Tenin Magassa committed a foul in the run of play and followed it with a technical foul, so Kansas got two sets of free throws to cut into its deficit. Evans sank all four foul shots to make it a five-point game and get KU back into a scoring groove. An exchange of layups and 3-pointers kept it close, but with KU down seven, an eight-point stretch led by Williams, Nichols and Copeland gave the Jayhawks a slim 51-50 lead heading into the final quarter.

After putting up some impressive offensive numbers through the first three quarters, Kansas saved the best for last, posting a 24-point fourth while holding the Cowgirls to only 16 points in a final effort to defeat one of the Big 12’s best teams for its first conference victory.

Four starters scored for KU in the first four minutes of the final quarter, before Nichols and Evans took over in the middle of the period to take a 66-57 lead and force an Oklahoma State timeout. As the Cowgirls started to rally, Conesa made her second timely 3-pointer of the night, securing an eight-point lead with 1:02 to play.

This set Kansas up for a trio of trips to the free-throw line, as Nichols, Carla Osma, and Evans sank all six shots to take a double-digit lead. Wooten made it to 19 points on the night with a second-chance jumper, but with 13 seconds left, the Cowgirls didn’t have enough time left as they fell 75-66 for their first conference loss.

After securing the first win of their conference slate, the Jayhawks (11-3) will be riding high as they prepare to face a formidable opponent back at home in No. 11 TCU (15-1), which beat Cincinnati 81-66 on Saturday night. The Horned Frogs are tied for the top spot in the Big 12 with Kansas State, as both teams are undefeated heading into their fourth conference matchup. They’ve only lost to defending champion South Carolina in early December. KU will look to hand TCU its second loss of the season at Allen Fieldhouse at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

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