COLLEGE STATION, Texas – Texas A&M’s Morenike Atunrase will miss the next four-to-six weeks of the season due to an injury suffered in the second half of play at Rice on Dec. 1.

Atunrase fractured her fourth metatarsal in her left foot, according to Texas A&M women’s basketball athletic trainer Mike Ricke. No surgery will be needed for the 5-foot-10 junior combination guard/forward who has been fitted with a 3-D boot and will walk with the aid of crutches during the recovery process.

“This is obviously a huge blow to our program, but we are confident Danielle Gant will be able to step up and fill in for Morenike in our lineup,” Texas A&M head coach Gary Blair said. “Morenike is the most well-conditioned athlete I have ever coached. She went two years without an injury, but sometimes these things happen to the best of us. We anticipate her coming back for the beginning part of the Big 12 Conference season.”

Prior to the injury, Atunrase averaged a team-leading 17.1 points and 1.9 blocks per game for the nationally-ranked Aggies. She currently ranks sixth in the league in scoring and tied for third in three-point field goal percentage (54.2). One of five league players to be named to the preseason All-Big 12 Team, Atunrase had not missed a game ever since the beginning of her freshman campaign in 2004-05. She was named Big 12 Conference Freshman of the Year in 2005.

A top 30 candidate for this year’s prestigious John R. Wooden Award, Atunrase is the school’s all-time leader in single-season blocked shots (58) and is 10 shy of the all-time record in the same category with 128 career blocks to date. Atunrase has played in 70 career games with 63 starts for the Aggies, who were ranked a school-best No. 10 this week in both national polls.