Aggies claim women’s title

Published 2:38 am Wednesday, April 6, 2011

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Danielle Adams scored 22 of her 30 points in a dominating second half and Texas A&M beat Notre Dame 76-70 on Tuesday night to win its first national championship.

Texas A&M (33-5) built an early 13-point lead with its aggressive defense, fell behind by seven in the second half, then rallied by pounding the ball inside to the 6-foot-1 Adams, who bulled her way to 9-for-11 shooting in the final 20 minutes.

Tyra White added 18 points for the Aggies, including a huge 3-pointer as the shot clock buzzer sounded to put A&M up 73-68 with 1:07 left.

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That was enough to bring the title to a school that didn’t even admit women until 1963 and to deny a second championship to Notre Dame (31-8), which won 10 years ago in St. Louis.

Skylar Diggins led the Irish in this improbable title game matchup of No. 2 seeds with 23 points. Devereaux Peters had 21 points and 11 rebounds for Notre Dame, which was burned by A&M’s 68 percent (15-for-22) second-half shooting.