The No. 20 Texas A&M women’s basketball team will host Houston in the season opener on Friday in the first round of the Preseason Women’s National Invitation Tournament bracket.
“This is just like opening night of Broadway,” head coach Gary Blair said. “Everything that we’ve done, from going overseas in the summer to our preseason workouts to a scrimmage and an exhibition game, that just gets you ready. You just have as many butterflies, now in my 46th year of coaching, that I had in my first year of coaching.”
The Aggies are fresh off Monday’s 86-35 exhibition win over Oklahoma City.
“It was a chance to get all 12 of my healthy players some playing time,” Blair said. “Everybody had double figure minutes played and that won’t happen again during the course of the year.”
Junior Danni Williams led the Aggies in double-figure scoring with 18 points against Oklahoma City. Senior Khaalia Hillsman contributed 16 points, freshman Chennedy Carter had 15 and freshman Kayla Wells had 12.
“I was really pleased with my young ones,” Blair said. “I was really pleased with Kayla Wells. I thought she did a very good job. Of course, Chennedy Carter is the incoming All-American and the expectations are just super high on her and so far she’s living up to it.”
A 19-0 run to end the first quarter helped propel A&M to a 50-19 halftime lead.
Despite the success the team found in Monday’s game, Blair stresses that it was just an exhibition game and the real test will come once the season begins.
“Friday night and Sunday and next Thursday we’ll find out a little bit more about our team when we open up the season with WNIT,” Blair said.
This is Houston’s first game of the season. The Cougars finished last season with a 12-19 record, falling to Temple in the American Athletic Conference Championships. Blair said it’s important to have a home crowd to support his team against a Houston squad who is hungry for a win.
“This is where we really need the 12th Man,” Blair said. “This is where we really need the freshmen in college that are looking for something to do. If they’ll come and watch us the first time, they’ll be back the second time because of the quality of play that we have and just how our kids handle themselves.This is where we need the student crowd to make a difference in the ballgame like they do in football and the other sports.”
Tip off is set for 7 p.m. on Nov. 10 at Reed Arena.