Somewhere on Tuesday afternoon, there were a lot of empty classrooms. Many of their normal occupants were at the Lynx game, screaming during T-shirt giveaways, laughing at mascot Prowl and sitting either in the stands or courtside on the floor at Concordia University in St. Paul.
A sellout crowd of 2,055 -- at least 75 percent kids -- packed Gangelhoff Center for the Lynx's exhibition opener against the Indiana Fever.
The Lynx rallied for a 71-66 victory. The kids appreciated the music, the games during timeouts and the flashy plays.
The adults and media came to see rookie Maya Moore, the wonder woman from Connecticut, but left talking just as much about another Lynx rookie. Amber Harris, a 6-5 forward from Xavier scored 10 points and had a game-high 10 rebounds in a little under 16 minutes.
As for Moore, she had statistics very un-Maya like in her first game as a professional athlete: four points, five rebounds, three assists and one block. The 6-foot forward was only 2-for-8 from the field, committed four fouls and had three turnovers in 22-plus minutes.
The Lynx would still take Moore with the No. 1 pick in this year's WNBA draft.
"Even though she didn't shoot the ball well, she didn't score that much, I thought she played well," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. "She plays so hard. She makes great basketball plays just out of freelance."
Moore's three passes for assists, for example, were all memorable. One was a deft touch pass as the middle woman on a fastbreak. Another was a long laser covering more than half the court. The third found a seam inside to Harris.
