KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Two months to the day after Kansas women’s basketball took down UCF in regular-season play, the Jayhawks did it again in the postseason.
Kansas defeated the Knights 56-35 in the first round of the Big 12 tournament on Wednesday night at the T-Mobile Center.
Freshman forward Jaliya Davis led the way for the Jayhawks with 10 points and 11 rebounds, but the key for Kansas came off the bench. In the first half alone, the Jayhawks’ reserves contributed 16 points — one point shy of UCF’s scoring total in the half — and helped Kansas take a double-digit lead into halftime. The Jayhawks’ bench finished the game with 29 total points.
Of the 10 players that totaled minutes for the Jayhawks, nine of them scored, with the lone non-scorer being freshman guard Libby Fandel, who finished the afternoon with four rebounds.
Meanwhile, KU limited UCF to 24.6% shooting from the field, including 2-for-19 (10.5%) beyond the arc, and the Knights’ only double-digit scorer, Jacorriah Bracey, went 5-for-19. The Jayhawks also won the battle on the boards, 48-27.
Kansas started the game off sloppily. After UCF’s Khyala Ngodu worked around a defender for the first points of the game and Nichols was blocked, the Jayhawks got the ball back but turned it right back over on a miscommunication between Nichols and Fandel that saw the ball soar out of bounds.
Davis added the first points for Kansas with a layup, but both teams struggled to get shots to fall through the opening minutes.
At the under-five timeout, the Jayhawks led 6-4, but a quick layup from the Knights following the timeout drew the teams back even.
After UCF reclaimed the lead, junior guard Brittany Harshaw and senior guard Sania Copeland drained 3-pointers and Davis added another basket in the paint to put the Jayhawks ahead. Harshaw put the exclamation point on the quarter with a 3 with 90 seconds to go and sent Kansas into the second quarter with a 17-10 advantage.
UCF head coach Sytia Messer called a timeout in the opening minute of the second quarter after Davis made an uncontested putback to extend the Kansas lead to nine.
Those points from Davis were the only ones scored until junior guard Laia Conesa added two free throws with 6:26 to go in the quarter. Senior guard Elle Evans added on with her first 3 of the game, but the Knights responded right away with a 3-pointer of their own by Felicia Schoelander.
A UCF jumper cut the Kansas lead back to nine, but free throws from sophomore forward Regan Williams and Nichols kept the lead in double digits ahead of halftime.
Heading into half, Kansas held a 27-17 lead. Harshaw and Davis each led the Jayhawks in scoring with six points apiece, while Davis led in rebounds with six. Kansas went the final 5:48 of the second quarter without a field goal.
The heavy defense continued in the opening minutes of the third quarter, with the only points in the first two minutes coming from Nichols at the free-throw line. UCF added the first field goal of the half with 7:31 to go in the quarter but back-to-back buckets from senior forward Lilly Meister and Davis forced UCF to use its second timeout of the game with Kansas leading 33-19.
The Knights shrunk the Kansas lead to as little as 11 down the stretch in the third, but the Jayhawks fought back and took a 39-26 lead into the final period.
The two squads traded layups to begin the fourth but another 3-pointer from Evans kept the Kansas lead comfortable. Conesa added to her total with a 3 and the Jayhawks built on the margin from there.
In the final minutes, Kansas extended its lead to 20, and freshman forward Tatyonna Brown entered the game for her first postseason minutes as the Jayhawks put the final touches on a 56-35 win.
No. 11 seed Kansas is still in the hunt for a spot in the NCAA Tournament later this month and will have a great chance at a quality win tomorrow against the No. 6 seed Colorado Buffaloes. The Jayhawks played the Buffaloes at Allen Fieldhouse back on Feb. 1 and fell 69-66 in overtime.
Colorado is considered a bubble team by most bracketologists, with ESPN and CBS having the Buffaloes as one of the last four teams in the tournament.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
