SF State’s women’s basketball team displayed potential in spurts against cross-town rival University of San Francisco in their first exhibition game of the season Nov. 1.

The Lady Gators lost 91 to 61, but had at least three freshmen on the court at all times, with five playing together at one point in the game.

“This game was basically an evaluation to look and see what players can do because you don’t know who can do what,” Joaquin Wallace, the women’s basketball coach, said.

Eleven players experienced their first game as Lady Gators, while seven freshmen played their first college basketball ever, and four junior transfers played their first division-two basketball game.

The lack of real game experience, as a group, caused chemistry problems, which resulted in a stagnant offense that shot 34 percent and had only eight assists in the game.

Freshman guard Ashlee Austin-Bean, 18, an engineering student, said the experience was fun because it was her first college game, but the team needed to get used to playing at game speed and also figure out who plays best together.

The Lady Dons, who had four starters returning, including 2005 and 2006 All West Coast Conference First Team junior guard Dominique Carter, took advantage as a more experienced team, and shot 56.5 percent for the game.

A glaring weakness for the young Gators in this game was being out-rebounded 22 to 47. Many of the Lady Dons 28 defensive rebounds fueled their transition offense, which led to easy lay-ups.

Second-chance points also hurt the Lady Gators, as they gave up 19 offensive rebounds after good half-court defense.

Dominique Carter, and sophomore guard, Shay Rollins, led five Lady Dons in double-figure scoring with 16 apiece.

Brio Rode, forward and junior college transfer, said it was good for the team to finally get out on the court and play basketball to learn the game, as opposed to just running in practice.

“We are real good on defense because we are an ‘in shape’ team, but we have a lot of freshmen. We need rebounds and we have to talk on defense,” Rode, 21, an international business student, said. “The game just showed the little things the team needs to work on.”

Rode led the team with 18 points. She went six for 12 from the field, connecting on five of eight shots from the three-point range, including two from beyond the NBA three-point line, which excited the crowd. Coach Wallace was pleased with the play of freshmen forwards Aumornai Edinburgh and Zalisha Oliver.

Edinburgh scored 10 points on five shots in 23 minutes.

Edinburgh, 18, a business administration student, was surprised by her performance because she knew the college game would be a lot tougher than high school, but she was happy to contribute to the team in any way she could.

In 28 minutes of play, Oliver showed a lot of poise. She showed signs of being a good slasher and penetrator for the team, with eight points, four rebounds and two steals in the game.

Sophomore forward, Krystle Mays, one of the players coach Wallace is counting on during the team’s rough opening schedule, played limited minutes in the first half because of foul trouble, but Mays stepped it up in the second half, scoring seven points to finish with 11.

“It’s fun, it’s like watching all my kids play and it’s funny that they don’t know how good they are going to be. We will be fine, we just have to get better each game,” Coach Wallace said. “I guarantee you next year when they play us it’s going to be a different story.”