Justice: For Aggies, Tuesday was a night to remember Commentary

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INDIANAPOLIS - It was only in those final seconds that the tears began to flow. It was only then that the magnitude of their accomplishment began to hit them.

That's when Texas A&M's spectacular guard, tough-as-nails Sydney Colson, began to cry, when she wrapped her arms around teammate Tyra White and wouldn't let go.

Colson also found her head coach, Gary Blair, in those closing seconds and held him tight.

"Thank you for letting me coach you," Blair told her.

By the time Colson got to assistant coach Vic Schaefer, he was already sobbing. Oh, he's a tough one, this Vic Schaefer. Crusty and brilliant and irascible. He has been on the sidelines for hundreds of games through the years, at Milby High, all over the place.

He has seen just about everything a coach can see, and even when you've been a few places and done a few things, there are nights like this one when all the pieces fall into place and you realize you're blessed to work for a great head coach and with spectacularly wonderful kids.

At some point, the kids made their way up into the stands to thank some parents and cry some more and then sawed Varsity's horns off and just stood there on the court and soaked in a moment they will remember forever.

These Texas Aggies are national champions, and doesn't that sound impossibly sweet? On a night when they took punch after punch, they countered with a few of their own and rode the greatness of Danielle Adams to a 76-70 victory over Notre Dame on Tuesday in the championship game of women's college basketball.

Showing up the men

Tyra White (20), who hit a key 3-pointer late against Notre Dame, celebrates A&M's national championship. Tyra White (20), who hit a key 3-pointer late against Notre Dame, celebrates A&M's national championship. Photo: Michael Conroy, AP Photo: Michael Conroy, AP Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Justice: For Aggies, Tuesday was a night to remember 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

They won a wonderfully played game, a game with more polish and more drama than the Connecticut-Butler men's final at Reliant Stadium on Monday night. It was a game of ebbs and flows, with the Aggies taking control early, losing it completely and then making play after play down the stretch.

"You just want to thank so many people," Blair said. "So many people helped along the way.“

Colson broke down again and again as she tried to put the evening into words. So much work had gone into this moment, so many grinding practices.

"I'm just so proud,“ she said. "We battled.“

A&M's 13-point lead turned into a seven-point deficit in the second half. Suddenly, A&M was in foul trouble and seemed to be coming undone.

When in doubt, find Danielle, and that's what the Aggies did in dumping the ball time after time to the Big 12's leading scorer. Adams responded with 22 of her 30 points in the second half .

"I had a little voice in my head that said, 'Don't let this team down,' “ Adams said. "We kept telling each other, 'We're not going to lose this game.' "

A&M took the lead for good 68-66 on an Adams layup with 3:29 remaining.

The Aggies held off the Irish down the stretch, and then they finished the dream, the dream Blair, 65, had when athletics director Bill Byrne brought him to College Station eight years ago.

Several weeks ago, as Blair showed a visitor around his magnificent practice facility, he paused and smiled.

"I have no excuse,“ he said. "Bill Byrne has given me everything I need to succeed.“

And so he has.

His victory is also Byrne's victory. Byrne has hired one good coach after another, has gotten facilities built and has put all his teams in position to play on the national level.

The A&M men and women won the 2009 and 2010 NCAA outdoor track championships, and the men's golf team won a national title in 2009. The equestrian team is ranked No. 1, and the softball and swimming programs are national powers.

The path to glory

Blair's road began with three state titles in the 1970s at South Oak Cliff High. He graduated from an all-white Dallas high school and attended Texas Tech when it was virtually all-white.

His dream was to coach baseball, but when they asked him to coach women's basketball at an all-black school, he jumped at it. He fell in love with women's basketball.

He can still tick off the girls he had on those SOC teams. Fran Harris is in TV, Barbara Brown in school administration. Dennis Rodman's little sisters, Debra and Kim, are around, too, both successful.

And there's this team. Adams might be the most popular athlete on the A&M campus. The two Sydneys, Colson and Carter, are gifted and bubbling with personality.

Blair heard from Aggies around the world, from Iraq and Afghanistan and other places, in the hours before the game. They told him they w ould be watching and rooting.

Blair said he won the game for Aggies everywhere and for his coaches and for the seniors he'd driven so hard.

They are champions. National champions. Aggies.

richard.justice@chron.com