Texas A&M coach Gary Blair can coach, recruit and schedule with anyone in the country.
Sunday, he left it to the women's basketball fans at Reed Arena to anoint the crowd favorite, and they fell in love with Danielle Adams.
The 6-foot-1 junior scored a team-high 24 points, hitting a trio of 3-pointers in Texas A&M's 95-77 victory over sixth-ranked Duke. Adams had a pretty good voting bloc to decide it. The largest crowd ever to watch a Texas A&M nonconference home game -- 6,866 -- made the call.
"Give my 12th Man a lot of credit for showing up, the Corps and the students," Blair said. "They'll be back."
His team gave them ample reasons to return, notching its first-ever home win over a Top 10 team, and doing so convincingly. The Aggies (1-0), ranked 16th in the USA Today-ESPN coaches poll, were unranked in the Associated Press poll. Duke (1-1) was sixth in both.
In a game where Sydney Colson scored a career-high 17 points and Damitria Buchanan matched a school record with seven blocked shots, Aggie fans seemed enamored every time Adams touched the basketball. There was much to love, with Adams scoring her 24 points in 22 minutes of playing time.
"A couple of times on those 3s, when we reversed the ball to her, she just stepped up effortlessly," Blair said "It's just pure stroke."
Blair rested Adams in the second half, taking her out with 1:38 left to a standing ovation from the crowd.
"The atmosphere was great," Adams said. "I've seen nothing like it. This is what I came to do, to make my mark and make my name."
Her performance was no surprise to her teammates.
"We see this every day in practice," A&M guard Sydney Carter said. "It was a matter of her showing off what she can do, surprising the whole crowd and surprising the other team."
"I was surprised as how well conditioned she was," Colson added. "Sometimes in practice, she has to get out of there, but you know our practices are way harder than that our games are."
When Duke guard Jasmine Thomas hit a pull-up shot from the left corner of the key to trim A&M's lead to 55-52, the Aggies' defense and Adams stretched it back out. Adams took a bounce pass from Colson for a score. Adams hit a baseline jumper and drew a foul for a three-point play. She then buried a jump shot to give the Aggies a nine-point lead. Duke never got closer.
"We had her marked down as a 3-point shooter, but she was her own kind of cat out there," Duke coach Joanne McCallie said.
A gap of 3 1/2 minutes passed before the Blue Devils scored again on Krystal Thomas' layup.
Adams become the first player since Blair took over as Aggie coach to score more than 20 in a season opener.
"It was a very good game, kind of a March game in November," McCallie said.
Her Blue Devils trailed at halftime, 45-35, but closed the Aggie lead to three points with a persistent press that forced 11 of A&M's 17 turnovers in the second half.
The Aggies had 25 assists in the game to the Blue Devils' 12. Duke point guard Jasmine Thomas scored a career-high 26 points. She was one of only two in double figures. Allison Vernerey, who sank 7 of 8 free throws, finished with 11 points.
"You don't want your point guard taking 28 shots, but she had to take 28 shots, because their other kids were not getting open," Blair said.
"That speaks for [the Aggies] playing off each other a lot more effectively that we did," McCallie said of the assist total. "Executing and finishing in the paint, and finishing with physical pressure, that's everything."
Sydney Carter added oomph to the Aggies' offense in the opening half, beating the Duke defense to the bucket for a reverse layup and then drawing a foul after taking a long lead pass from Colson.
"Coach always tells me and the whole team that he needs energy players," Carter said. "I feel like if I come off the bench as a sixth man that I need to be the one to spark the energy."
The Aggies' win had a long list of highlights, which included collecting 11 blocked shots. The seven by Buchanan matched the Aggies' single-game mark previously held alone by Morenike Atunrase. By raising her total to 62 career blocks, Buchanan moved into 10th place on A&M's all-time list.
"She had seven blocks and seven rebounds and didn't even attempt a shot because we had other people doing their roles," Blair said. "This team is all about people stepping up and role-playing. We had tremendous guard play in the first half. Colson, Carter and Tanisha were just doing a great job."
Tanisha Smith, who scored the game's first bucket off the opening tip, wrapped a pass around a Duke defender to set up Adams for a score.
Adams opened her Aggie career with a flourish, stepping back to shoot a 3-pointer. Her blocked shot and takeaway came between a pair of treys by Carter. The second gave A&M a 31-19 lead.
Colson set the pace early in the second half for A&M, scoring her team's first three baskets and getting an assist on the fourth to offset a sloppy beginning to the half.
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