Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports

Preview: Florida Women’s Basketball Travels to Texas A&M

The Florida women’s basketball team will travel to College Station, Texas on Thursday for its second meeting with the Texas A&M Aggies this season. Florida dropped the first match up this season, falling at home 67-59 on January 15th.

Texas A&M

The Aggies come in to the game with a 15-6 record, including being 5-3 in the SEC. They’ve lost two out of their past three games; their only win in that span is a two point win over LSU at home, but they still have the pieces to sweep the season series against Florida.

 

On offense, they are led by the trio of guards Danni Williams and Curtyce Knox and center Khaalia Hillsman.

Both Williams and Hillsman rank in the top seven in the SEC in points per game. Williams ranks third in the conference with 17.5 points per game while Hillsman sits in the seventh while averaging 16.5 points per game on 63.9% shooting from the field. That percentage ranks second in the SEC. Knox meanwhile leads the conference in assists per game, dishing them out at a rate of  9.0 per game, more than double that of anyone else in the SEC. Together, the trio have helped the Aggies have the fifth ranked scoring offense in the SEC, averaging 72.8 points per game. Texas A&M also leads the SEC as a whole in assists, with more than 16 dimes per game. With Knox pulling the strings, the Aggies will look to use their impressive ball movement to score on a pesky Florida defense.

Knox is also a presence on the defensive side of the ball.  She gets her hands into passing lanes and forces turnovers, getting 2.4 steals per game, ranking third in the conference. The Aggies also have a presence on the boards, as forward Anriel Howard leads the SEC with 11 rebounds per game.

Florida

The Gators are coming off of a big road win at Vanderbilt this past weekend, coming away with a 93-73 victory in Nashville. The win marked just their second SEC win of the season, as their 11-10 record includes a 2-6 SEC mark. However, they are 2-1 in their last three conference games after losing their first five conference games.

Forward Ronni Williams had a historic performance in Nashville, putting up a career-high 43 points against the Commodores. That’s the third highest scoring output by a Gator in program history, and is the most by any player in the SEC this year.

 

It’s no surprise that performance would come from Williams; she leads the team and the SEC in scoring, putting up 19.4 points per game. as the senior has brought a real leadership presence to the team.

She isn’t doing it alone however.

Dyandria Anderson only trails A&M’s Knox in the conference assists standing, averaging 2.2 assists per game.

In addition, the Gators have really been pounding the boards lately, outrebounding a solid Tennessee team despite falling to them at home, and grabbing double-digit offensive boards against Vanderbilt. Tyshara Fleming and Haley Lorenzen have been chipping in with double-doubles recently, helping to take some of the rebounding and scoring load off of Williams.

Tip-off

Tip-off is set for 8pm on Thursday night.

About Jonathan Acosta

Native New Englander. Follow me on Twitter: @jonacosta_10

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