Many hotels, casinos and restaurants will have a "soft opening," working out their kinks for a few days before the grand opening.
Think of the Texas A&M women's basketball team's 84-52 exhibition victory over Oklahoma City University on Thursday in the same vein.
The Aggie women opened in style at Reed Arena, but they face a big test in the regular season opener Sunday against sixth-ranked Duke.
"I had no idea we could get off to that good of a start," A&M head coach Gary Blair said. "Our kids were hooked up and ready to play. We've mentioned all week how good this [OCU] team is and we've casually mentioned that Syracuse's men's team got beat by a Division II team, Texas Tech's women got beat by Lubbock Christian and this team was ranked higher than Lubbock. They can't simulate that level of pressure in practice."
There weren't many kinks that cropped up against OCU, one of the NAIA's top teams. A&M had a 13-1 run to start the game and finished the first half up by 27.
A tough, hustling Aggie defense also forced OCU into 35 turnovers in the game and a paltry 26.3 shooting percentage from the floor in the first half.
Still, A&M did struggle to get into a rhythm early as both teams combined for eight fouls in the first six minutes of the game.
In the second half, both coaches agreed to play zone defense to give each other a different look, which conversely improved both teams' shooting. A&M saw its field goal percentage rise to 53.1 in the second half while OCU hit 44.4 percent of its shots.
"I was proud of how we played defense in the first half," Blair said. "In the second half, I played my zone for about seven minutes and he played in it for about 20. We got to see a lot of things wrong with our zone defense and we hadn't worked on it enough."
In her second season with the Aggie program, senior Tanisha Smith tied for the team lead Thursday with 16 points. Smith was 6 for 10 from the field and had three rebounds, three assists and four steals.
Smith led a balanced attack that saw four different players score in double figures. Junior point guard Sydney Colson wasn't one of them, but she did have a solid effort with six points, three rebounds, four assists, two blocks and four steals.
"Colson ran her team pretty well in the first half," Blair said. "In the second half, she had three turnovers that there were no excuses for. She was pretty active and her leg looks completely healthy to me.
"Tanisha is what you call a 'gamer.' She doesn't want to come out. Every time I take her out to rest, she's the first one in my ear, saying, 'Coach, I'm ready.' I say, 'I know you are, but there are some things I need to work on.' She'll get her 35 minutes a game, but we've got to be patient."
Jefferson College (Mo.) transfer and Big 12 preseason newcomer of the year Danielle Adams had 16 points and led A&M with 10 rebounds. The junior was also the first player off the bench for Blair, but left two minutes into the third quarter after hitting her head on the floor following a nasty collision with OCU's Donica Cosby. Adams returned ten minutes later, though, to end her first game with the Aggies on a good note.
"I thought I did a pretty good job," Adams said. "I got rebounds like coach wanted me to and scored like I wanted to. We just have to better our team chemistry. We lost players like [graduated seniors] Danielle Gant and Takia Starks, so we have to come together as a team and play hard."
Forward Kelsey Assarian also played well. Even though the sophomore got into 29 games last season, she averaged just 7.3 minutes per game. Against the Stars, Assarian showed how she could combine with Adams and senior Damitria Buchanan to give the Aggies a much-needed inside presence.
Assarian scored eight points and had five rebounds, also earning her 'blue-collar' label from Blair by diving to the floor to save a rebound.
"[Assarian] and Buchanan combine to give us a two-headed monster in there," Blair said. "Kelsey is very good offensively the closer she is to the basket. She's got all the spin moves and is a smaller version of a [former A&M men's player] Chris Walker, someone who will do all the small things and make the hustle plays. I have confidence that both these kids can play and play really well."
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NOTES -- Sophomore guard Sydney Carter was limited to eight minutes because of a sprained thumb, which limits her shooting and catching abilities. Blair hopes Carter will be well by Sunday. ... The Aggies used 16 different players in the second half but shot better than in the first half, a fact that surprised Blair after the game. ... OCU head coach Rob Edmisson coached with A&M assistant Vic Schaefer last summer with the USA's entry into the William Jones Cup, an international tournament held in Taiwan.
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