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

Kansas forward Regan Williams makes a layup against Rice during the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament on Sunday, March 22, 2026 in Allen Fieldhouse.

Survive and advance: That’s the name of the game in March in college basketball, and No. 2 seed Kansas women’s basketball is still alive in the WBIT.

The Jayhawks took down No. 3 seed Rice 62-55 at Allen Fieldhouse on Sunday evening, meaning Kansas will get one more home game this season.

“I think it’s obviously really important to us,” Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said. “We want to play well, we want to advance in this tournament, we want to represent Kansas in the best fashion we can. We rebounded well tonight, we won the free throw battle. And there were some things that weren’t great – offensively we turned it over too much, but I think you have to give Rice a lot of credit.”

The Jayhawks were led in scoring by sophomore forward Regan Williams, who had 15 points and five rebounds. Freshman forward Jaliya Davis and junior guard S’Mya Nichols both finished the day in double-figures scoring as well, with 13 points and 11 points, respectively.

Freshman guard Libby Fandel connected from beyond the arc three times for Kansas, building off a late-game 3-pointer she had tallied on Thursday against Troy that helped the Jayhawks to a victory.

“I’d say just staying confident,” Fandel said. “As a freshman, you’ve got to find your confidence and I think that’s really helped me and my teammates all cheer me on and having confidence in me too helps.”

“I was excited for her,” Schneider said. “We told her in-game the other night that, ‘Keep shooting, you’re shooting good shots, one’s going to go down,’ and it’s great for a coach when you get the opportunity of somebody makes one, and you get the opportunity to play-call and a player steps up and makes it.”

Junior guard Laia Conesa finished the night leading the team, alongside senior forward Lilly Meister, with 10 rebounds. Conesa had 12 boards in Thursday’s first-round game and has become one of the Jayhawks’ best rebounders during the postseason.

“She checks her box-out,” Schneider said, “which is the right technique, and then she goes and pursues the basketball, and we call that rebound down, checking out and then rebounding down, and (I’m) really proud of her.”

Davis drew a foul on the opening play and added a free throw to draw first blood and she added on the next possession with a layup. A free throw from Meister gave the Jayhawks a 4-0 edge, but the Owls started making shots to get back into it. Midway through the first, Kansas held a 9-6 advantage.

Rice drew within one thanks to a layup from senior center Shelby Hayes, but stellar defense from the Jayhawks over the next three minutes allowed Kansas to create some separation. During the run, the Jayhawks added five points from Williams and Davis made a jumper of her own with just over a minute to go. The Owls broke their drought near the end of the quarter, but Kansas took a 16-12 lead into the second.

The start of the second quarter saw the Jayhawks find some swagger. Continued defensive pressure and back-to-back 3s from senior guard Sania Copeland and Nichols forced Rice head coach Lindsay Edmonds to use a timeout.

The Owls applied defensive pressure following Edmonds’ timeout, but Kansas kept the Rice offense at bay. The Owls scored five straight points on a 3-pointer and two free throws before Conesa broke the Jayhawks’ scoring drought with two free throws. The stingy defense continued down the stretch, with Kansas holding its opponent scoreless for a stretch.

Rice finally broke the streak with a jumper with 54 seconds left, but the Jayhawks headed to the locker room at half with a 31-19 lead.

The two teams traded blows out of halftime, but back-to-back 3-pointers from Fandel extended the Kansas edge early in the frame. Rice clawed closer through the middle of the quarter and found itself within nine at the under-five timeout, 42-33 with 3:08 left in the third.

Williams extended the Jayhawks lead to 15 with consecutive layups, but the Owls answered with two 3s in the final minute to cut the deficit back to single digits. Williams added a free throw before the buzzer to send Kansas into the final period with a 49-39 advantage.

The Jayhawks locked down Rice to begin the fourth. Through the first four minutes of the period, the Owls were held to just one point, a free throw from Hayes at the 8:40 mark, while Kansas added six. Hayes broke the drought with a layup, but then fouled out on the next play. Sophomore center Myah Hazelton also fouled out during the drought, meaning Rice was without its top two paint players in the final minutes.

The Jayhawks attempted to pad their lead down the stretch, but the Owls kept swinging. The Owls cut it to ten with free throws with 47 seconds left and an and-1 by freshman guard Jordin Blackmon brought Rice back within seven with 12.4 seconds remaining. Two free throws from Conesa finished the scoring for the Jayhawks and Kansas ultimately headed to the WBIT quarterfinals with a 62-53 victory.

The Jayhawks will have one final game at Allen Fieldhouse on Thursday against San Diego State. The Aztecs were the regular season champions in the Mountain West but fell in the quarterfinals of their conference tournament and missed the NCAA Tournament. San Diego State will be the third team that Kansas will have played in the WBIT that won its conference in the regular season.

“I mean, Rice was 17-1 in their league, and I don’t care what conference you’re playing in, to go 17-1 is extremely impressive,” Schneider said. “I just hate it that in a situation like that, that they are not able to go in the tournament because they lost in the conference tournament and didn’t get the automatic bid. But from this point forward, we know we’re going to see tough teams, we’re going to see teams that execute, because those are adjectives that go along with good teams that are still playing this time of year.”

Schneider said he only got “a 30-second snippet” of the Aztecs before his postgame press conference but he thinks they will match up similarly to Rice in terms of how they execute.

Thursday’s quarterfinal game will be at 6:30 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.

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