Manhattan ? Contending with nationally ranked Kansas State’s women’s basketball team would be a tough enough challenge for Kansas University if it were at full strength.

However, the Jayhawks have an even tougher task now because they will be undermanned.

Tipoff for today’s Big 12 Conference game is 2 p.m. at Bramlage Coliseum.

Kansas (8-6 overall, 1-2 Big 12 Conference) will be without the aid of starters Tamara Ransburg and Larisha Graves and reserve Kandis Bonner, who will be serving one-game suspensions from the league for their involvement in a fracas following KU’s 55-52 road win over Missouri last weekend.

Kansas coach Marian Washington undoubtedly wishes she could have the trio’s combined 17.5 points, 10.5 rebounds and 4.4 assists per contest in its matchup against No. 10 K-State (12-2, 3-0).

Instead, another trio, Kansas State scorers Kendra Wecker, Nicole Ohlde and Laurie Koehn, likely will play an even larger role today. The three players, who all hail from Kansas, combine to average 47.4 of Kansas State’s 77.4 points a game.

“What can you say about them? They have all the experience in the world,” Washington said of the Wildcats’ stellar in-state standouts.

“We are going to take some time to watch film and try to come up with a gameplan to stop them.”

Only two teams have done that so far this season, and both were from the Big Ten Conference. Both of K-State’s losses also came in tournament-type atmospheres.

Purdue tripped K-State, 79-69, in the State Farm Women’s Tip-Off Classic in West Lafayette, Ind. Penn State delivered a crushing 69-56 defeat to the Wildcats in the Junkanoo Jam Tournament at Grand Bahama Island.

In each of K-State’s losses one of its big three scorers was held under 10 points. Ohlde, who averages 15.9 points per game and seven rebounds a contest scored nine points against Purdue. Koehn, who averages 15.1 ppg, scored just five in the Wildcats’ loss to Penn State. Wecker leads KSU with averages of 16.4 ppg and 8.6 rpg.

The Sunflower Showdown in women’s basketball might seem to be as lopsided as the men’s series has been in recent history, considering nationally ranked Kansas State has dominated Kansas over the last two seasons with three of its four victories by a margin of 23 or more. But Jayhawk fans need only look back three years — not 10, as is the case for the Wildcat men — to find the last KU victory.

The KSU men stayed snug with the Jayhawks until the waning moments Wednesday. And KU’s leading score, Crystal Kemp, said the Kansas women could do the same today.

“People are calling us underdogs, but we know that we are a good team,” Kemp said, “and we have to believe in ourselves.”