KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas women’s basketball saw its conference season end with a 55-48 loss to the No. 6-seeded Colorado Buffaloes on Thursday night in the Big 12 tournament.
Kansas was led in scoring by junior guard S’Mya Nichols, who finished with 14 points and four steals. Colorado held freshman forward Jaliya Davis to just eight points on 2-for-9 shooting from the field. It was the first time this season that Davis was held to under 10 points.
“There were 19 players that participated in the game, and I’m grateful that no one left with a serious injury,” Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said. “I thought it was a pretty dangerous two hours, so fortunate that nobody was seriously hurt.”
Schneider said he thought the game was too physical.
“We changed the rules in 2011 and started using phrases like ‘freedom of movement,'” he continued, “we wanted more scoring, and I think tonight, you take Jade Masogayo and Jaliya Davis for example, two, probably, of the best power forwards in our league, and that would have been a great matchup, to have them go against each other in a way that is less physical, where their skills could’ve been on display. but I felt like it was two teams just beating the (expletive) out of each other and that’s not necessarily what anybody wants to watch, in my opinion.”
Whatever the case, the Jayhawks struggled to get their offense going at the T-Mobile Center. Kansas scored just 56 points in its first round victory over UCF and followed it up with 48 on Thursday. The Jayhawks were also outrebounded 39 to 25 in their loss to the Buffaloes.
With the defeat, Schneider fell to 0-4 in the second round of the Big 12 tournament since he took over the Jayhawks’ program in 2015.
Turnovers defined the game, with Kansas coughing the ball up 15 times, six of which came from Davis. Even though they came away with the victory, the Buffaloes actually fared worse. Colorado ended the matchup with 20 giveaways.
Senior guard Sania Copeland got the scoring started with a corner 3, but Colorado was able to take Davis out of the game early and force Kansas away from the rim. At the under-five timeout, Kansas held a narrow 7-6 advantage.
A bucket from freshman guard Libby Fandel extended the Jayhawks’ lead to three before back-to-back 3-pointers from Colorado flipped the script and gave the Buffaloes the lead.
Kansas got two points at the line from Davis before the end of the quarter and sent Colorado into the second quarter with a 12-11 edge.
The second quarter was a disaster for the Jayhawks.
The Buffaloes scored the first three points of the half before Nichols responded with an and-1 that got Kansas back within one. But from there, things fell apart. Colorado embarked on a 9-0 run that lasted over six minutes and handed the Jayhawks a double-digit deficit.
Nichols traded free throws with CU’s Tabitha Betson before half and Kansas went into the locker room trailing 26-18. She was the only Jayhawk to score for Kansas in the second quarter.
Out of halftime, the Jayhawks found some momentum after a jumper and layup from sophomore guard Regan Williams got Kansas back within four, but couldn’t maintain it. Another scoring drought of over three minutes saw Colorado extend its lead back to nine before Nichols and senior guard Elle Evans fired back for the Jayhawks.
The Buffaloes extended their lead to as large as 12 down the stretch, but Kansas was able to get the deficit back to single digits before the final period with a free throw from senior forward Lilly Meister and a layup by Williams. Colorado took a 38-29 lead into the final quarter of play.
The Buffaloes started the fourth with a 3 by Logyn Greer but Williams responded with another jumper to keep the deficit at 10. Evans made a jumper of her own, but Colorado fired back ahead of the under-five timeout to keep the Jayhawks at bay.
Midway through the final quarter, Kansas trailed 47-37.
The Jayhawks tried to stay in it down the stretch. A 3-pointer by Nichols and an and-1 from Davis kept Kansas in the game, but it could not keep the Buffaloes off the board. A miss from beyond the arc by Evans with 34 seconds to go and the Jayhawks down 53-45 gave possession back to Colorado.
After a free throw by Davis, KU forced a turnover that allowed Davis to score, but Copeland committed a foul on an errant inbounds pass by the Buffaloes and Zyanna Walker made two free throws to end the game.
With the loss, Kansas will await the results of the committee on March 15 during Selection Sunday. If the Jayhawks are not selected to the NCAA Tournament — they were ESPN bracketologist Charlie Creme’s eighth team out prior to Thursday night’s game — they could be invited to one of the other two postseason tournaments, the WBIT and WNIT. Kansas would have to accept an invitation to either of these tournaments, and Schneider said that he would accept an invite to the WBIT.
Mike Gunnoe/Special to the Journal-World
