By: ROBERT CESSNA
Eagle Columnist

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BATON ROUGE, La. -- The Texas A&M women became a basketball power Saturday.

The Aggies beat Texas-San Antonio the way a No. 2 seed should, dominating every phase.

"When you're the two seed, you cannot be nonchalant when a game starts," A&M head coach Gary Blair said.

A&M wasn't, bolting to a 33-point halftime lead.

UTSA never had a chance to make it respectable. A&M was physically better but equally sharp mentally.

A&M played with the mindset of Rutgers, Stanford or Louisiana State, the tournament's other No. 2 seeds and perennial powers.

A&M's starters had just as much air time on ESPN2 sitting on the bench as they did playing. No one played more than 25 minutes, which will keep them fresh for Monday's game.

It was impressive, especially when you consider this is all new for the Aggies.

A&M was upset two years ago in the first round by Texas Christian. Last year, the Aggies struggled to beat Texas-Arlington, another Southland Conference team like UTSA. The Aggies had a double-digit lead in their 58-50 victory over UTA for just 1 minute, 25 seconds.

A&M's bench -- after the top six players -- played only a combined 21 minutes in last year's first round game. Point guard A'Quonesia Franklin played every minute, which took its toll two nights later in the second round when she was 3-of-13 shooting while playing another 40 minutes.

But the Aggies made sure they didn't repeat recent mistakes in the NCAA Tournament.

"Coach addressed this before we came here to the media room," Morenike Atunrase said. "Two years ago, we were excited to be there. This year, we have a lot more experience. We've been there. We've been through the wars."

And it showed.

A&M played with poise and confidence, putting the game away early in the first half.

"We're hungry," Blair said. "We plan on dancing awhile."

If the Aggies repeat Saturday's performance, they will.

It's a shame UTSA athletics director Lynn Hickey wasn't at the game to see what she envisioned for Aggieland two decades ago.

Hickey coached the Aggies from 1984-94, pulling the program up with Texas and Texas Tech, which were the Southwest Conference kingpins and national powers.

Hickey directed the Aggie women to their only Sweet 16 appearance in 1994. A&M caught a break in the first round when Florida couldn't host because of a concert. To their credit, the lower seeded Aggies took advantage by beating Florida in College Station, then winning at San Diego State.

While Hickey coached the team to that historic NCAA Tournament run, she left the post before the job was complete, opting to get into administration. In her absence, the Aggie women's basketball program fell into disrepair. A&M won the WNIT in 1995 and returned to the NCAA Tournament in 1996, but from the 1996-97 season until 2004-05, the Aggies toiled in the cellar of the Big 12 Conference.

Hickey missed Saturday's game because of her duties as a member of the NCAA Men's Tournament selection committee. She'd have been proud of what the A&M program has become, even if the Aggies did beat her Roadrunners by almost 40.

Funny, but Blair doesn't have visions of matching Hickey's run to the Sweet 16. He envisions Elite Eights and Final Fours.

That's how far the Aggies have come.

• Robert Cessna's e-mail address is robert. cessna@theeagle.com.

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