Just one turnover every eight minutes is rare in college basketball.
Yet Kansas University’s women gave the ball away only five times in the 59-49 victory Thursday night over Northern Iowa that enabled the Jayhawks to advance in the WNIT.
“At this time of the year,” KU coach Bonnie Henrickson said, “you have to value the ball, and we took care of the ball.”
Curiously, each of the Jayhawks’ five starters was charged with one turnover apiece. The total was a season low and marked only the eighth time in 29 games that the Jayhawks have been in single digits in turnovers.
At the same time, Kansas held the Panthers to 31.5 percent shooting – a noteworthy statistic in view of the fact the Jayhawks had the worst field-goal-percentage defense in the Big 12 Conference at over 43 percent.
Thus five and 31.5 were the key numbers as the Jayhawks won for only the fifth time in their last 17 games.
“We’d like those numbers to be the same Sunday,” Henrickson said, “but (Mississippi) will be completely different.”
In its next rung on the WNIT ladder, Kansas will meet Ole Miss at 6 p.m. Sunday in Allen Fieldhouse.
Northern Iowa was solid, but the Panthers lacked speed and athleticism. Mississippi lacks neither.
“They have speed at every position,” Henrickson said. “They play a different style than (Northern Iowa). We have two days to get ready and we’re excited.”
Ole Miss (16-13) wound up with a 5-9 record in the Southeastern Conference.
Sunday’s winner is scheduled to meet the winner of today’s Delaware-Pittsburgh game in the next round. No date or site has been determined for that game.