A&M next challenge for Kansas women

? Texas A&M ranks last in Big 12 Conference women’s basketball statistics in free-throw shooting, three-point shooting and rebounding.

Those facts are enough to give Kansas University’s struggling women’s basketball team hope going into tonight’s game against the Aggies.

Tipoff will be at 7:05 p.m. at Reed Arena on the A&M campus.

Kansas will be playing at the site of its last regular-season victory against a conference foe. The Jayhawks have dropped 21 straight to Big 12 teams — all 16 league games last year and the first five this season — since knocking off the Aggies, 75-62, in the 2001 regular-season finale.

KU will, however, be starting five players who have never played in Reed Arena — sophomores Blair Waltz and Aquanita Burras, and freshmen Tamara Ransburg, Crystal Kemp and Erica Hallman. A&M toppled the Jayhawks, 58-51, last season in Lawrence.

If Kansas hopes to win tonight, it must cut down on turnovers. The Jayhawks rank last in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio, and among conference teams only Oklahoma State has been guilty of more turnovers than Kansas this season.

“It’s going to be very important for us not to turn the ball over,” coach Marian Washington said after her Jayhawks were charged Wednesday with an unsightly 30 gaffes in their 61-49 loss to Oklahoma in Allen Fieldhouse.

Texas A&M feeds off turnovers. The Aggies feature the league leader in steals in junior guard Toccara Williams, who averages five thefts a game. No one else in the league averages more than three. Williams also ranks second in assists with 6.13 per game while averaging a team-high 13.2 points.

Texas A&M’s lone league victory in five starts came at Oklahoma State. The Aggies won, 69-54, in Stillwater. KU played in Stillwater 10 days ago and bowed to the Cowboys, 60-56.

Kansas shouldn’t have to contend with a raucous, pro-Aggie crowd tonight. Texas A&M ranks 10th in the Big 12 Conference in attendance with an average crowd of just 1,340. KU is last in the Big 12, averaging 1,234 fans per game.

After tonight, Kansas will play its next two games in Allen Fieldhouse — Wednesday against Nebraska and Feb. 1 against Texas Tech.