photo by: Sarah Buchanan/Special to the Journal-World

Kansas sophomore guard S'Mya Nichols dribbles around an Arizona player on Sunday, Jan. 19, 2025, in Lawrence.

Kansas women’s basketball’s slow starts and rebounding woes persisted in Salt Lake City after a disappointing showing on Sunday against Arizona State, as the Jayhawks scored only five points in the first quarter and were losing the rebounding battle 21-8 at halftime.

While they outshot and outrebounded the Utes in the second half, they couldn’t overcome the early hole they dug themselves into — a trend that is becoming very prevalent for this year’s Kansas team — and lost 79-61 on Wednesday night.

Kansas’ fortunes improved as the Jayhawks kept pace with Utah in the final three quarters, but the Utes’ hot shooting and success on pick plays prevented Kansas from gaining any ground as it suffered through a poor defensive performance.

The Utes fell one short of their season-high in made three-pointers with 13, after starting the night going 9-for-19 from deep in the first half. Junior Gianna Kneepkens set a career high with 30 points and a season high with six made 3-pointers to lead the Utes on the offensive end while also grabbing 10 rebounds and dropping eight assists to end two shy of an impressive triple-double.

While Kneepkens led her team in all three categories, S’Mya Nichols paced the Jayhawks offensively after a zero-point first quarter, ending up with 26 points on 10-for-14 shooting and two assists. Utah finished the game with a remarkable 27 assists as each of its 16 field goals in the first half came off an assist.

The Jayhawks started their trip to Salt Lake City by shooting 17% in the first quarter. In addition, they grabbed only two rebounds, both defensive, and scored five points to face a 21-5 deficit after the first 10 minutes of play. The Utes, who came into the game averaging 9.6 three-pointers per game and shooting 36.5% from deep, started out 5-for-8 from long range as Kneepkens scored 12 points in the first on 4-for-5 three-point shooting.

The dismal start to the game gave the Jayhawks plenty of room for improvement, as leading scorer S’Mya Nichols scored Kansas’ first eight points of the second. Sania Copeland made just her second 3-pointer of conference play as Laia Conesa added on a triple of her own, her second of the night, to force a Utah timeout as Kansas narrowed its deficit to 34-21.

The Utes regrouped after this break, going on a 7-1 run and finishing out the first half with a comfortable 43-25 lead.

Kneepkens scored almost as many points as Kansas’ entire team with 19 in the first half, going 7-for-10 from the floor. A successful second quarter got Nichols into position as Kansas’ top scorer at the break with 11 as Conesa followed up with six points. While the second proved to be a good offensive quarter and the Jayhawks limited their turnovers, they were still losing the rebound battle by 13 at the half and hadn’t collected a single offensive board.

The Utes lost no momentum during the halftime break, coming out on a 13-7 run to reach their largest lead of the night at 54-32. But their three-point barrage from the first half switched to backdoor cuts to the rim by Maty Wilke, who had gone scoreless in the first half, as she racked up eight of Utah’s 15 points to make it 58-36 at the media timeout. After trading off a 3-pointer and layup each, Kansas embarked on a seven-point run to end the quarter, with Brittany Harshaw recording her first points since last week’s game against Arizona State and Regan Williams capping her six-point quarter with a cutting layup.

Nichols came out hard in the fourth, scoring six of Kansas’ first eight points as an old-fashioned three-point play put her at 26 points on the night and the Jayhawks found themselves in a 12-point game with 6:44 to play. But just as they made things a little more interesting, a seven-point Utah run sank the Jayhawks back into a nearly 20-point deficit as Schneider called timeout to regroup.

After the quick seven-point run, the Utes went cold. Kansas matched them, embarking on an over-five-minute scoring drought as Utah’s stretched to nearly three-and-a-half minutes. The Utes finished without a field goal in the last 4:40 of the game but sank a few free throws as Kansas’ reserves came in and Danai Papadopoulou laid in two late buckets for her only points of the night.

Kansas, which fell to 12-7 (2-6 Big 12) will look to end a rough two-game stretch as it continues the road trip down to Houston where the Jayhawks will take on the 5-14 (1-7) Cougars at 2 p.m. on Saturday.

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