Courtesy of Kansas Athletics
PROVO, Utah –Elle Evans and Regan Williams combined for 44 points to lead the Kansas Jayhawks to a 71-66 win over BYU on Tuesday night at the Marriott Center.
Evans finished with 24 points, hitting 7-of-12 field goals and four three-pointers, giving her 69 on the season. Evans is now tied for second in school history for the most made threes in a single season.
Williams scored a career-high 20 points while pulling down five rebounds, going 7-of-12 from the field and knocking down all five of her free throw attempts in the win. For Kansas, this game marked the fourth time this season that two players scored 20 or more points.
S’Mya Nichols put together another all-around performance as she had 14 points and grabbed a career-high eight rebounds in addition to dishing out seven assists. The trio of Evans, Williams and Nichols contributed 58 of KU’s 71 points.
“I thought we were pretty good offensively most of the night, we shot it well and only had 10 turnovers,” Kansas head coach Brandon Schneider said postgame. “We missed our first five free throws, but then we didn’t miss another one the rest of the game and we got stops when we needed to. This is a hard place to play, so I think something that this team needs to be really proud of is winning in a place that a lot of people don’t have success at.”
With the win, Kansas improves to 16-12 on the year and 6-11 in Big 12 play with one regular season game remaining. BYU falls to 13-15 (4-13 Big 12).
Between eight points from Nichols and six by Laia Conesa, the Jayhawks claimed an early advantage in the first quarter. Williams, Nichols and Conesa each scored baskets in an early 6-0 run that put KU up 8-4. That remained the Jayhawks’ largest lead of the quarter as Evans and Nichols hit four free throws in the final minute to put Kansas up 18-14 at the end of one.
Evans hit a three-pointer on the first possession of the second quarter, giving Kansas a 21-14 edge, for the largest of the half. Evans and Williams combined to score all 19 Jayhawks points in the quarter as Kansas entered halftime leading 37-31.
After BYU scored the opening basket of the second half, Kansas used an 8-0 run that featured three-pointers by Zoe Canfield and Evans to open up its largest lead of the game at 45-33 at the 7:08 mark. BYU hit three triples in a 9-2 run to get back within five at 49-44 with 4:18 to play before Evans ended the run with her fourth three of the night. Williams scored KU’s final five points of the quarter, matching her career-high with a traditional three-point play to have the Jayhawks ahead 57-48 at the end of three.
Both squads traded baskets to open the final frame but a four-point BYU push narrowed KU’s lead to 63-59 with three minutes left in regulation. Kansas responded with a Conesa basket and Evans free throws to extend it back out, but another late Cougar effort made it a single possession game at 67-64 with 39 seconds to go.
The final 14 seconds featured more back and forth action as Nichols laid in her 14th point of the night to put Kansas up by five, but was shortly followed eight seconds later by another BYU basket, before a pair of Evans free throws sealed the 71-66 victory.
Up Next
Senior Day at Allen Fieldhouse is the final day of the regular season as Kansas hosts No. 21 Oklahoma State on Sunday, March 2. Tipoff from Allen Fieldhouse is set for 3 p.m. CT and the game will be streamed on ESPN+.
