No matter the circumstances or the position, Danielle Gant has delivered the perfect fit for Texas A&M.

During the Aggies’ run to the Sweet 16, she has brought intensity and efficiency. The Aggies hope that continues today against Duke in Oklahoma City.

In the Aggies’ first two games in the NCAA Tournament, Gant has averaged a team-high 19.5 points a game while missing just five shots. Defensively, Gant has become a disruptive force, leading A&M’s in-your-space pressure.

Gant, a junior, has progressed from last season, when she seemed to be a power forward a couple inches too short for the position.

“She understands the game and understands what we want out of her,” A&M coach Gary Blair said. “She is just a 5-10 warrior that WNBA scouts are drooling over because she has a mid-range game.”

Like so many members of the team, Gant almost fell through the recruiting cracks.

Gant’s journey from Oklahoma City’s Putnam City West High School to College Station, Texas, came after some uncertainty. Academics were a question mark.

Blair was on a recruiting trip to an AAU tournament in Little Rock, Ark., when he bumped into Ron Hutton, Gant’s AAU coach. Hutton assured Blair that Gant would meet NCAA qualifying standards and urged him to pursue Gant.

Soon, Blair was in touch with Gant with South Carolina and Oklahoma in the hunt. The key was Gant’s official visit to A&M.

“OU is a great school, and Sherri Coale is a great coach,” Gant said. “I really looked up to her in high school, but I really wanted to get away from home, somewhere in Texas.

“I got along with the team great. I clicked with the team at dinner.”

She had the same reaction to the school and the program.

“Her style is our style,” Blair said.

Academics haven’t been a problem for Gant, who has remained eligible and says she takes her classroom requirements more seriously than basketball.

What makes Gant so valuable and so difficult to game plan is her ability to play almost anywhere, from point guard to power forward. She was knocking down 16-foot jumpers with regularity in blowout victories over UT-San Antonio and Hartford, while running into press tables and diving for loose balls.

“Her motor runs at a little different speed,” said A&M assistant Vic Schaefer, who runs the defense. “She can guard anybody. She is unique in this game of college basketball. She just creates a lot of problems for people.”