Texas A&M wins their first ever NCAA women's championship

**Admin** Wed Apr 06, 2011 12:08 am

There's an old saying: There's a first time for everything. That statement definitely held true for Texas A&M. With Danielle Adams scoring 22 of her 30 points in a dominating second half and answering the Fighting Irish basket for basket, Texas A&M brought home their first ever title to the former all-male military academy with a thrilling 76-70 victory over Notre Dame.

For Texas A&M's head coach Gary Blair, at the age of 65, it was a long time coming for him to win his first ever title. In his 26 years of coaching, he became the oldest coach to win the women’s championship, just one night after UConn’s 68-year-old Jim Calhoun did the same thing on the men’s side.

The championship is the first in a major sport for Texas A&M since the football team won it all back in 1939. And it comes at a school that didn’t even admit women until 1963, and where school administrators didn’t always see the advantage of funding men’s and women’s sports equally when Title IX passed in 1972.

The Aggies are a national championship newcomer and bullied their way through the tournament to get to the top. Like Notre Dame, the Aggies vanquished their conference rival on the way, beating Baylor in the Dallas regional final after losing to the Lady Bears three times during the season.

Notre Dame wouldn’t give up, battling back behind its sensational sophomore guard Skylar Diggins. The Irish scored nine of the next 11 points to tie the game at 66 on Diggins’ jumper with 3:56 left.

Blair went right to Adams on the next two possessions and she delivered, hitting back-to-back layups. Adams hit nine of her first 10 shots in the second half.

After Devereaux Peters’ putback cut it to 70-68, White hit the huge 3. Diggins had two free throws with 40.7 seconds left, and the Irish had one last chance after a turnover by the Aggies with 29 seconds remaining.

Muffet McGraw called her final timeout, but Diggins turned it over in front of the bench.Trya White hit two free throws to seal the win.