Kansas women’s basketball falls just short in dramatic thriller to No. 9 Virginia Tech

Kansas women’s basketball was one shot away from completing one of the biggest upsets in school history last night.

Brandon Schneider and the Kansas women’s basketball team suffered a bad road loss to Penn State in the second game of the regular season but could have made up for it with a monumental upset over No. 9 Virginia Tech in round one of the Cayman Islands Classic.

Kansas trailed by just three points ahead of the final quarter and took a 2-point lead with just over three minutes remaining after Holly Kersgeiter drained a 3-pointer. However, the Jayhawks failed to score in the final 3:16 of the game, turning it over twice and missing a pair of free throws in the process. Alabama transfer Ryan Cobbins missed what would have been a game-winning jump shot with five seconds to go.

The Lady ‘Hawks had high expectations heading into this year with former All-Big 12 players such as Taiyanna Jackson and Zakiyah Franklin returning to Lawrence and highly touted 5-star freshman S’Mya Nichols joining the team. Most of the roster from the WNIT-winning team is back in 2023-24. Unfortunately, the year hasn’t gone as planned thus far and they’ll likely carry multiple losses into conference play.

Nichols led the team with 13 points on 5-of-13 shooting, while Jackson scored eight points and recorded two steals and one block. Kansas women’s basketball shot 23-of-59 (39.0%) from the field and 4-of-13 (30.8%) from 3-point range. Virginia Tech’s All-American center Elizabeth Kitley dropped in a 31-point, 18-rebound double-double in the win.

KU still has another chance to make history when they take on No. 6 UConn tonight at 6:30 p.m. CT. No. 2 UCLA defeated them 78-67 in the opening game. It is evident that the squad has enough talent to win these kinds of games, but it boils down to whether Coach Schneider can make the adjustments and if the players can avoid self-inflicted mistakes down the stretch.