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

Kansas coach Brandon Schneider yells to his players during the game against Minnesota on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025, in Lawrence.

Kansas women’s basketball dropped its fourth consecutive Big 12 conference matchup with a 67-51 loss at Arizona State on Saturday afternoon.

Kansas lost junior guard S’Mya Nichols, who entered the day averaging 19.1 points and 5.5 assists, to injury midway through the third quarter. The Overland Park native was being pressed by Sun Devil senior guard Last-Tear Poa when Nichols’ left foot stepped on Poa’s right foot, rolling Nichols’ ankle. Nichols went down in significant pain before Kansas medical staff helped her into a wheelchair and helped her off the floor.

Nichols had been playing through an injury to her left ankle since Kansas’ matchup with Utah back on Jan. 7, when she stepped on a defender’s shoe while trying to spin around another defender. After that game, she had said she was in pain but stayed in the game because she knew the Jayhawks needed her. She also left Kansas’ contest with Baylor four days later with an injury.

On Saturday, the Jayhawks were never able to get the offense going against the Sun Devils. Freshman forward Jaliya Davis and sophomore forward Regan Williams led Kansas in scoring with 11 points apiece, but they were the only Jayhawks who finished the matchup in double figures.

The 1-6 start to conference play is the worst for a Kansas team since 2019-20 and places the Jayhawks second to last in the conference standings, with only 0-7 Houston behind them. Kansas was picked sixth in the Big 12 preseason poll.

Arizona State got on the board first after Jayhawks senior forward Lilly Meister was assessed a flagrant 1 foul when a replay showed her elbow caught a Sun Devil in the face, sending Arizona State to the line for two shots. After Kansas turned the ball over, Meister quickly picked up her second foul, sending the Sun Devils back to the line and giving them a quick 4-0 lead.

Davis notched the first points for the Jayhawks with a layup and two free throws from freshman guard Libby Fandel on the next possession knotted the score at 4-4. After forcing a turnover, Davis drove to the rim for an and-1 bucket to put Kansas on a 7-0 run and extend its lead to three.

Through the first four minutes of play, nine free throws had been attempted and converted between the two teams and eleven turnovers had been committed between the squads.

Two free throws and a jumper by the Sun Devils gave them the lead back before junior guard Brittany Harshaw laid one in for her first points of the afternoon. Arizona State checked in with its first 3 of the day and took the lead back with a layup off a turnover.

Williams scored her first points at the rim to get Kansas back within two before Davis notched two more from the charity stripe to tie things up at 13 before the end of the quarter.

Nichols started the second with a drive to the rim that resulted in a three-point play, reclaiming the lead for Kansas in the first seconds. Arizona State responded with a drive of its own to draw back within one before senior guard Sania Copeland beat her defender for her first two points of the day. A layup and a foul from Arizona State brought things back to even at 18 just two minutes into the second quarter.

The Sun Devils got a pair of layups to fall to send them on a 7-0 run and gave them a 22-18 lead, their largest of the game up to that point. Meister drained one from deep to bring the Jayhawks back within one, but ASU responded with 12 straight points over the following four minutes.

Nichols finally ended the Sun Devils’ run with a 3-pointer, but Kansas was still in a 34-24 deficit. Nichols did her best to try and keep the Jayhawks in the game before halftime, with two more free throws keeping Kansas down just 10, and she was aided by Harshaw, who drained her first 3 since the Haskell game before conference play.

But Arizona State wasn’t done. The Sun Devils hit a buzzer beater jumper before halftime, sending the Jayhawks into the break with a double-digit deficit at 40-29. Kansas shot just 34% from the field in the first half and turned the ball over 14 times.

The two teams started the third quarter exchanging buckets. Davis followed that up seconds later with a jumper to bring Kansas back within nine. The Sun Devils responded heavily, extending their lead before Copeland got a shot to fall from beyond the arc to keep the Jayhawks close.

Arizona State tallied four more points before the under-five timeout in the third and held an impressive 50-36 lead over Kansas.

With Nichols out injured, trailing by 14, the Jayhawks tried to find offense elsewhere late in the third. Williams and senior guard Elle Evans, who both came off the bench on Saturday, added points, but the Kansas defense struggled to slow down the high-powered Arizona State offense and the Sun Devils led 55-43 after three periods.

The fourth wasn’t much better for the Jayhawks. It took Kansas nearly three minutes into the quarter before it finally got on the board with a layup from Williams and another minute and a half before Evans recorded the second made field goal of the quarter for the Jayhawks.

Williams and Meister both scored later in the fourth, but the deficit was too much and Kansas ultimately fell to Arizona State 67-51. The Jayhawks only scored eight points during the final 10 minutes of play.

Kansas (11-8, 1-6 Big 12) now heads south to Tucson looking to claw back toward .500 against the Arizona Wildcats on Tuesday night. That game is set to begin at 7:00 p.m. Central.

Box score