The Lady Jayhawks held on for a 58-49 win against the Minutewomen of UMass in the first game of the Hawaiian Regent Wahine Basketball Tournament (wahine means women in Hawaiian and is pronounced wah-hee-nay; the Hawaiian Regent Hotel is the corporate sponsor).

The Lady Jayhawks came out hot, scoring 19 points in less than 10 minutes of play, building a lead as big as 13 points in what looked to be a blowout. Some steals, blocked shots, and good rebounding made it a one-sided affair for about the first 15 minutes. Then somebody put a lid on the basket. The Minutewomen also stepped up both their offense and defense, trimming the lead to 8 at the half, 26-18.

During halftime, somebody must have moved the lid to the opposite end of the court, because the second half started out as cold as the first half ended, and the Minutewomen succeeded in tying the game at 26. Fortunately, the drought was finally broken, and I do not recall the Lady Jayhawks ever relinquishing the lead, though UMass stayed close.

Kansas was able to build the lead back to 9 points on several occasions in the second half, once on a three-point play done the hard way (fouled on a failed three-point attempt, all three free throws were made), but UMass responded with their own trey. The end of the game was closer than indicated by the final score, as Kansas made their free throws in response to UMass fouls to try and regain possession with the clock working against them.

Pride and Johnson accounted for approximately half of the Kansas offense, with Raymant and Robbins contributing to the reasonably balanced scoring. I didn't keep track of who started, so it's not clear how much of the offense came off the bench. It's also not clear how much UMass was hurt by the loss of two players to injuries, one less than two minutes into the game, and the other with seven minutes left.

Being an afternoon game on a weekday, attendance was sparse, with the UMass fans appearing to outnumber, but not outcheer, the Kansas fans.