photo by: Kansas Athletics

Kansas guard S'Mya Nichols pulls up for a jump shot against Kansas State on Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026, in Manhattan.

MANHATTAN — It is no secret that Kansas women’s basketball needs every win that it can find right now as the postseason approaches.

The Jayhawks found a way to get one Saturday in Bramlage Coliseum, a place where they hadn’t won in more than seven years.

Kansas walked away with a 75-68 victory over rival Kansas State, completing its first regular-season sweep of the Wildcats since 2013.

Junior guard S’Mya Nichols finished the evening with 17 points to lead Kansas in scoring. She was aided by the forward tandem of freshman Jaliya Davis and sophomore Regan Williams, with both players tallying 16 points. Senior forward Lilly Meister added another 14 for the Jayhawks.

The matchup could have gone Kansas State’s way after what took place in the waning minutes of the second quarter. Kansas found itself holding a 33-19 lead, but a 14-0 run by the Wildcats erased the lead before the break.

Freshman guard Aniya Foy started the run with a 3 before senior guard Tess Heal took over. Heal accounted for nine of K-State’s points during the run, including the and-1 that came with 1.6 seconds left in the quarter.

Kansas came out of half still reeling from the run, before Nichols brought the energy back to the Jayhawks with an and-1 of her own. Kansas didn’t trail the rest of the way.

“Taking care of the basketball,” KU coach Brandon Schneider said when asked about what changed. “We turned the ball over 12 times, we shot 58% in the first half. We were too careless with the ball, and credit them for doing a good job being disruptive.”

After the Jayhawks took down the Wildcats back on Jan. 25, Nichols said she knew that this game presented an opportunity for a series sweep for Kansas.

“Honestly, I was just really excited,” Nichols said. “I was looking forward to it as soon as we beat them the first time, it was like, OK, it would be my first time beating them twice, and I really installed the determination factor into my teammates that this is really a big deal and I think they really showed up and played today.”

The Jayhawks had four players from the Kansas City area make a big impact in the game. Nichols, Williams, Davis and senior guard Sania Copeland all hail from the Kansas City metro, and Nichols said they all take this game seriously.

“I feel like the names you just listed, I feel like those were the people who really had the most fire in them today,” Nichols said. “And I think their energy carried on to everyone else who really didn’t understand it, but they still rode with us.”

Davis notched the first points with a layup on Kansas’ second possession but freshman guard Gina Garcia answered for the Wildcats on their next possession to knot things up again. The Jayhawks extended their lead to five with 3s from Copeland and Nichols and a layup from Meister before the Wildcats came roaring back and made it 12-11.

Kansas responded with Williams to end the quarter, with the Kansas City native adding seven points before the break to send the Jayhawks into the second with a 19-15 advantage.

Kansas got off to an explosive start in the second, building a double-digit lead midway through the period. Layups from junior guard Laia Conesa and Williams extended the lead for the Jayhawks before a 3-pointer and layup from Meister broke things open.

Williams added another layup to give Kansas a 14-point lead with 3:06 left, but minutes later, that lead was gone with the Wildcats’ run.

Out of half, K-State retained all the momentum. The Wildcats grabbed their first lead of the game with two free throws from junior forward Nastja Claessens to put K-State up 39-37, but the Jayhawks hung around.

A free throw from Davis and an and-1 from Nichols brought the teams back even at 41-41 before Davis added two more from the free-throw line to give the lead back to Kansas with just over three minutes left in the quarter.

The Wildcats fired back to tie things up once more, but free throws from Williams and Nichols kept the Jayhawks up one heading into the final quarter with a 48-47 edge.

Kansas started the final period with back-to-back layups to build a five point cushion and kept that cushion heading into a K-State timeout with just over seven minutes left.

The teams traded blows over the next few minutes, with a key play coming from junior guard Brittany Harshaw. Harshaw went diving for a rebound, stealing it from a Wildcat and resulting in a 3 from Nichols, extending the Kansas lead to six.

Heading into the final under-five timeout, Kansas led 60-57.

Meister made two from the free-throw line out of the timeout and Claessens responded with a layup before Meister cashed in from beyond the arc for the second time to extend the Jayhawks’ lead to 65-61.

Copeland followed it up with a 3-point play of her own, driving to the bucket and drawing a foul on the make, to give Kansas a 68-61 lead.

The Jayhawks piled on from there. Nichols followed up two free throws with an and-one score of her own to give Kansas a 73-64 cushion.

K-State added a 3-pointer to draw closer and Nichols got slapped with an offensive charge to give the Wildcats the ball back with 1:03 on the clock and Kansas leading 73-67.

But the Jayhawks forced a turnover, and they didn’t look back. Davis added two more from the free-throw line and Kansas was able to walk away with a 75-68 victory in Manhattan.

The win was a big one for the Jayhawks, with most predictors having Kansas right on the bubble for a trip to the NCAA Tournament next month. Schneider’s Jayhawks have a tough road ahead of them if they want to go dancing, with two matchups against projected tournament teams coming up to close out the season.

Kansas will start that run on Wednesday, when No. 20 Texas Tech travels to Lawrence to take on the Jayhawks for senior night. That game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.

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