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

Kansas guard Elle Evans puts up an off-balance one-handed shot against TCU Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2025, in Lawrence.

Kansas women’s basketball (11-4, 1-3) fell short of a comeback in an 80-73 loss to No. 11 TCU (17-1, 5-0) at Allen Fieldhouse on Wednesday afternoon, dropping the team’s conference record to 1-3.

The Jayhawks played it close throughout the game and weren’t vastly overmatched in any one metric. Both teams shot around 50% from the field and had similar 3-point shooting numbers and turnovers.

“I’ve coached in, I think it’s well over 800 games, and I don’t know that we’ve ever lost shooting 50% and only having seven turnovers,” Kansas coach Brandon Schneider said. “I think that speaks to how TCU capitalized on any and every mistake we made.”

The most significant difference between the two teams was rebounding. TCU finished with 31 compared to 24 for KU, and TCU had 10 offensive rebounds, while KU had five. Those rebounds helped the Horned Frogs get 13 second-chance points, six more than the Jayhawks’ total.

Many of those came from TCU center Sedona Prince in particular, as she posted 30 points on 12-for-21 shooting from the field. She had 14 rebounds, three of which were on offense. Prince was effective in the paint, especially in the first three quarters, when she scored 28 points on 17 shots.

“(TCU coach) Mark (Campbell) pulled me over before the game tipped off and said, ‘Hey, if you can score easy layups all game, do that,'” Prince said. “My teammates around me, they knew I had mismatches down low, and they kept pounding the ball inside.”

Prince credited her teammates Agnes Emma-Nnopu and Taylor Bigby with playing longer than their height and getting essential rebounds for those 13 second-chance points.

Kansas made an early effort to drive to the rim. Ten of the team’s 19 first-quarter points came in the paint, and a few midrange shots at the end helped the Jayhawks take a 1-point lead after the first quarter. The Jayhawks lost their slight lead in the second quarter and couldn’t regain control.

“We gave up too many middle drives, whether they sprayed it for 3 or were able to drop it off at the rim,” Schneider said. That was the thing that we would take away from this game, and we know we have to improve.”

Schneider was pleased with how the Jayhawks defended Madison Conner, who scored nine points. Through TCU’s first 16 games, she averaged almost nine 3-point attempts per game while making four. Against KU, she scored nine points on 2-for-7 shooting from the field and 2-for-5 shooting from distance.

On the other end, TCU similarly made it difficult for KU to shoot and hit 3-pointers. The Jayhawks attempted 11 in the game, which is a number that Schneider and junior guard Elle Evans both said needs to be higher.

TCU held a 38-32 lead at halftime, and the Horned Frogs were largely able to keep the Jayhawks at arm’s length for the rest of the game. The third quarter was tight as both teams scored 20 points and had similar shooting splits.

Evans was one of Kansas’s bright spots in the third quarter. She scored 10 of her 19 points in that quarter and hit both 3-point attempts and all four free throws. Evans played in all 40 minutes of the game.

TCU only outscored KU by a point in the final quarter, as the game came down to free throws and fouls in the final seconds. Senior guard S’Mya Nichols, who finished with 24 points, was the top scorer of the quarter and made several shots that the Jayhawks needed to stay alive. Nichols had an effective game as a pull-up shooter and as a finisher, and she went 9-for-11 on her free throw attempts.

Still, it wasn’t enough to take down TCU. The 80-73 loss is the third of the conference season and the team’s fourth overall.

So far, only two of TCU’s wins have come by less than double digits, and both were against ranked teams. Campbell credited Nichols’s versatility for making it difficult for the Horned Frogs to pull away.

KU has had a difficult start to the conference season. It started with a tough home game against Baylor, followed by road games against Iowa State and Oklahoma State before the TCU game. Even though the Jayhawks have a 1-3 conference record so far, Schneider said the team has shown improvement in the latter two conference games.

“Our attention to detail in terms of how we play the scout, how we play ball-screen coverages the last two games, I don’t find any fault in at all. I’m really proud of how we played,” Schneider said. “We’re improving, we’re playing better.”

Kansas will take on Colorado in Boulder on Saturday at 2 p.m.