The Kansas women’s basketball team is on the board in Big 12 play.
The Jayhawks recorded their first conference win of the season with an 83-68 victory over UCF in Orlando, Florida, on Sunday afternoon in a battle of teams who had started 0-2 in the league.
Freshman forward Jaliya Davis led the scoring for the Jayhawks with 26 points, while sophomore guard Leah Harmon was the top performer for UCF, finishing the contest with 38 points, her career high.
Senior forward Lilly Meister was the big story for Kansas on Sunday, with the first-year Jayhawk, an Indiana transfer, setting a new career high of her own with 22 points in Orlando.
The first bucket for Kansas came from the hands of Meister to give the Jayhawks an early 2-0 advantage. After that score, however, the Jayhawks embarked on a two-minute scoring drought, eventually broken by junior guard Laia Conesa.
From there, Kansas started to find its groove. The Jayhawks embarked on a 7-0 run that saw them take an 11-4 lead heading into the under-five timeout, led by Davis, who had six of Kansas’ seven points during the run.
Out of the timeout, free throws broke the scoreless drought for the Knights and a fastbreak layup by sophomore guard Summer Yancy brought UCF back within three. The teams exchanged fouls, with the Jayhawks shooting just 2-for-4 from the charity stripe, and UCF trimmed the Kansas lead to one, 13-12. By the end of the quarter the Jayhawks’ lead was just two points.
In the second quarter, the teams exchanged turnovers before Davis got the Jayhawks on the board with a layup. Conesa followed it up with a steal and fast-break bucket, forcing UCF and head coach Sytia Messer to take a timeout to regroup with Kansas leading 22-16 just two minutes in.
Back-to-back 3-pointers by Harmon drew the game to a tie at 22-22, but senior guard Elle Evans answered for the Jayhawks with a midrange make. Harmon wasn’t done, however, as she cashed in from downtown with her third 3-bucket in two minutes, giving UCF its first lead of the game. Halfway through the second quarter, Harmon had 15 of the Knights’ 25 points.
Two free throws by Davis gave Kansas the lead back, but the Jayhawks still struggled to find an answer for Harmon, who hit a midrange shot to retake the lead for the Knights. The teams exchanged buckets before going cold as the end of the first half loomed. Kansas junior guard S’Mya Nichols scored the last bucket of the quarter 2:13 left. At the half, UCF led the Jayhawks 33-32.
Meister set the tone for Kansas in the second half with two easy layups to reclaim the lead for Kansas with a three-point advantage. Harmon continued her monster day with another 3-ball to give UCF the lead, but the two teams handed the lead back and forth for the next couple of minutes once more.
Evans collected her first 3 of the afternoon midway through the third quarter and the Jayhawks extended their lead back to five.
The next few minutes were defined by defense, with Kansas not allowing the Knights to score a field goal for over five minutes of time during the middle of the period. Meister continued her monster day with another layup to give the Jayhawks a 51-42 edge.
Harmon finally broke the drought for the Knights with an acrobatic layup with two minutes left in the quarter but the Kansas lead was still seven. After two more free throws from UCF, freshman guard Libby Fandel finally found nylon from deep, extending the Kansas lead again. Kansas headed into the final quarter of play ahead 56-48.
UCF quickly cut the Kansas lead to six before Meister and Davis connected for an easy layup to push the Jayhawk lead back to eight. Meister tied her career high with a 3-pointer, and at the under-five media timeout, the Jayhawks led 67-56.
Kansas started to pull away after the timeout. Evans cashed in from deep again to extend the Jayhawk lead to 75-58 with just minutes left. That was part of an 8-0 run. Double technical fouls were assessed during the final minutes, with Davis picking up the foul for Kansas and Jasmynne Gibson charged for UCF.
A second-chance layup with under three minutes to go gave Meister her final points of the afternoon..
Davis and Harmon put exclamation points on their team-leading afternoons with buckets in the final seconds. Davis got a layup to fall for her final two points while Harmon dropped one through from deep to get her up to 38 on the day..
Kansas (11-4, 1-2) now heads back to Lawrence for a midweek matchup with the Utah Utes. That game is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
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