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

The Jayhawks walk off the court after being defeated by BYU during the semifinals of the Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament on Monday, March 30, 2026 in Charles Koch Arena.

WICHITA — After Kansas held the lead for nearly three full quarters on Monday, three 3-point buckets from BYU in the middle of the fourth quarter ended up being the difference as the Cougars took down the Jayhawks 70-67 in the WBIT semifinals at Charles Koch Arena.

With the Jayhawks leading 56-54 and 5:30 remaining in the game, it was do or die for the Cougars. The first blow came from freshman guard Olivia Hamlin, whose 3 put BYU the lead. The second came exactly a minute later when freshman guard Sydney Benally drained one from downtown to extend that lead and she followed it up on the next possession with her fourth make from beyond the arc to give the Cougars a 63-56 advantage heading into the final minutes, one that KU was ultimately unable to overcome.

The matchup was the second of the season between Kansas and BYU. The two teams met at Allen Fieldhouse back on Feb. 4 and the Jayhawks took home an 81-60 victory. Freshman forward Jaliya Davis had 23 points in the second half of that game and Cougars head coach Lee Cummard commented that they had made it a point to contain her.

On Monday, Cummard’s BYU squad held Davis to just eight points on 2-of-7 shooting from the field and one rebound in the second half, though she still finished with 18 total points.

“We came into this game with quite a few things, in the event that she got going, that we would throw at her, and we crowded her,” Cummard said. “(Lilly Meister) got some shots because we were playing off of her and trying to make it uncomfortable for Davis but overall, I thought that aside from a few possessions where we got buried – she’s a fantastic player – but we got buried too low and she gets to that right hook and she’s so athletic and long, we played her kind of with a body and a half the whole game.”

After falling behind by its largest deficit of nine points with 59 seconds left, Kansas tried to make things interesting. The Jayhawks were able to fire back and draw within three thanks to clutch shot-making. A pair of layups from Davis, a 3-pointer from junior guard Brittany Harshaw and two free throws from junior guard S’Mya Nichols shrank the BYU lead to one possession.

After the free throws, the Cougars had the ball and just needed to run down the clock to win. The inbounds pass found Benally, who had the ball poked away to a Jayhawk by KU senior guard Sania Copeland, but Copeland was called for a foul, sending BYU to the line with three seconds left. Under WBIT rules, teams can challenge foul calls and Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider decided to do just that in a key moment.

After a short review, the officials determined that there was no foul called and awarded the ball to the Jayhawks under the basket. But according to Schneider, Kansas had expected the ball to be inbounded from the sideline.

“While they were at the challenge, as a staff, we felt like it should have been at the sideline,” Schneider said, “and we asked initially, prior to them going to the monitor, ‘If we win the challenge, is it our ball?’ and it’s ‘We’re not sure, this is all new to us,’ which is completely understandable. But when we won the challenge in the timeout, right while they were looking at it, we had discussed a sideline play and then the ball went to the baseline, and we have a baseline play for that, but we had not talked through it in the timeout.”

Schneider said that he wanted additional clarification on the rule and if it were to be implemented as an NCAA rule, he would need to be better educated on it.

On the ensuing inbounds play, the Jayhawks couldn’t find a clean look. In a three-point game, Nichols made a quick pass inside to Meister, who made contact with a BYU defender and threw the ball out of bounds. BYU inbounded quickly and dribbled down the court to claim victory and march on to the WBIT championship.

The Jayhawks had built momentum earlier in the night. A layup from Davis broke the ice with 8:17 to go in the first and the Jayhawks caught fire from there, with a 3 from Meister and another fast-break bucket by Davis. The freshmen forward capped off the 8-0 run with a free throw to extend the early Kansas advantage.

BYU finally broke through with a drive by sophomore guard Delaney Gibb, which ignited the Cougars as they embarked on an 11-2 run after the score that gave them the lead.

Nichols brought the crowd back to life with an acrobatic drive to the rim in the final minute that tied things back up. The Overland Park native weaved through four defenders en route to the game tying basket. At the end of the first quarter, the game was tied at 15.

BYU drew first blood in the second quarter on a jumper from Hamlin, but Davis responded with a layup to keep things even. A 3-pointer from Hamlin gave the edge back to the Cougars but sophomore forward Regan Williams knotted things up with a layup just past the midway point of the quarter.

Hamlin added two more from the line before back-to-back buckets from junior guard Laia Conesa and freshman guard Libby Fandel catapulted Kansas back in front. BYU tied things up with over two minutes left before halftime, but an and-1 from Meister gave the Jayhawks a 31-28 lead heading into the locker room.

The opening minutes of the third quarter were a slugfest. The Cougars started the period 6-for-9 from the field, while Kansas began 4-for-10. Senior forward Lara Rohkohl started the scoring and BYU snatched the lead with a jumper less than a minute later. Meister drained her second 3-pointer to reclaim the advantage for KU and start a run of four straight scoring possessions for the Jayhawks, but they couldn’t pull away.

The reason Kansas couldn’t pull away was Hamlin. She swished back-to-back 3s to keep the Cougars within two with just under six minutes to play in the third, 40-38. Another BYU 3-pointer gave the Cougars the edge again, and the squads traded blows through the middle of the quarter.

The Jayhawks took the lead back courtesy of two free throws by Davis and a floater from Conesa. A flurry of free throws to end the period gave Kansas a 51-46 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

BYU grabbed the momentum early in the fourth. An 8-0 run by the Cougars during the first three minutes flipped the game in favor of BYU and gave it a three-point lead. Meister drew things even with another 3, and Nichols gave the Jayhawks the edge with two free throws before the Cougars’ 3-point onslaught flipped the game on its head.

The loss ends the season for KU with a 22-14 record and leaves many questions heading into the offseason. The Jayhawks will lose four players to graduation, and will have to contend with potential transfer-portal departures and additions.

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