The Wolfpack women’s basketball team played their first and only exhibition game Sunday afternoon against North Greenville in Reynolds Coliseum. The excitement began very early for the Pack. Within the first minute of the game, sophomore forward Kody Burke scored the Pack’s first goal, and junior guard Marissa Kastanek took a blow to the face and was temporarily removed from the game.

The scores remained pretty close for the beginning of the first half. The Pack struggled offensively, making only 14 out of 38 attempted goals in the first half.

“Our practices have been very intense and very good, to be quite honest with you,” Coach Kellie Harper said. “We just needed to play somebody. There are certain things that you can’t learn and you can’t teach until you actually get to do it in a game situation. This is going to be great for us to watch and learn. I think the first thing that I noticed immediately is the speed of the game is a little faster than the thought process of our players right now, but that’s ok. That’s what this exhibition game is for.”

The first half ended with the Pack in the lead, 35-23. They came back strong in the second half, greatly surpassing the Crusaders in points. The team believes nervousness may have been a contributing factor to their less-than-perfect performance.

“In the beginning, just with my turnovers, I may have had the butterflies coming back and knowing that I have experience, so I was a little nervous,” Burke said. “The second half I had a different mentality. I was like, ‘Just be poised.’ That’s what Kellie emphasized in the locker room. I did that, took it slow, and I’m feeling a little bit better.”

Harper said that for exhibition games she usually tries to script out the minutes of the game to make it fairly even among all the players. This created an opportunity for freshman forward Kiana Evans, one of the games top scorers, to get game experience.

Evans discovered that collegiate basketball was much different from what she had gotten used to in high school.

“I would say the tempo [is different than high school] and having to be a step ahead and know where the ball is going to go,” Evans said. “I guess I kind of have an idea where to go but I have to be there and be certain about it. If I’m going to go, I have to go hard and make sure I get there and not halfway go hard. That’s what coach Kellie tells us a lot of times.”

With a few of the team’s returning players out for injuries, two of the game’s top three scoring players were freshmen. Harper said that the team’s freshmen are learning quickly, and she’s excited about both the young and returning players.

“I think, again, [this game] just proves to me that I have some options,” Harper said. “We’ll go back and watch that tape, and we have to improve a lot before Friday, but we can correct some things. There will be some things that will be easy for us to correct.”

The Wolfpack women’s basketball team will kick off their season Friday at noon against Southeast Missouri State at Reynolds Coliseum.