While post Justis Durkee bears guard Dante Ross on his shoulders and wing Scott Darmstadt peeks around Durkee for a look, the rest of the UC Davis men's basketball team flanks former head coach Bob Williams. To Williams' (with microphone) right are Jason Cox (smiling), Brandon Laird (holding plaque), J.C. Timmons (in the forefront of Laird), Jonathan Surface and Chris Vlasic (to Timmons' right). Photo by Wayne Tilcock / Aggie

The Aggies defeated D-II basketball powerhouse Kentucky Wesleyan College 83-77 in front of a partisan Kentucky crowd to claim the coveted title and its accompanying trophy.

Immediately following the game, UCD head coach Bob Williams, who would leave for UC Santa Barbara before the week was out, was choked up with emotion as he accepted the trophy.

"On behalf of 14 very talented, very committed young men, UC Davis is extremely proud to accept the National Championship trophy," he said.

But before any UCD finger could even smudge the golden luster of the trophy, the team had to fight its way through two other tough foes.

The Aggies got off to a jittery start against high-scoring West Texas A&M University, as the team found itself down 13 in the first half and primed to make an early exit from its first Elite Eight Tournament.

But the team received huge efforts off the bench from wing J.P. Bergez and post Jonathan Surface, both of whom hit three-pointers to help the Aggies assume a 39-29 halftime lead.

"It's a 40-minute game," wing Chris Vlasic said. "At first when they came out, we just had to weather the storm. We talk about it as a game of runs all the time. And if a team takes a run at us, we just try to hold our ground and maybe execute a little bit more. We tried to slow the game down and bring it back to our pace."

The Aggies were dominant on defense in the second half as well, holding the Buffaloes to just 55 points for the game - 30 below their regular-season average - on the way to a 63-55 Aggie victory.

The following day, UCD squared off against the College of Saint Rose to see who would advance to Saturday's nationally televised championship game.

Post Jason Cox made sure the Aggies would not experience any scoring lulls in the first half of this one, as he scored 22 of his game and career-high 27 points in the first half to propel UCD to a 42-28 first-half lead.

"I was getting a lot of open looks and I felt really good about my shot," Cox said. "You put those together and I guess it turned out pretty good."

The Aggies began the second half on fire as well, building their lead to a 51-30 margin with 17:49 to play. But UCD minds must have been thinking about the possibility of a national television appearance, as the Aggies let the lead slip to 63-58 with over eight minutes to go.

"I think they played well," Darmstadt said. "But I started thinking about playing in the championship game. I started thinking 'How could we let this slip away?'"

The Aggies would hold on for an 88-76 victory that set up the meeting with the Panthers, a team that has won six national titles in its history, the most recent of which came in 1990.

"Going into that game, we knew we had to execute, attack and not play afraid," Williams said. "We had to play with the same feeling we'd had all year long. I don't think playing on national television phased us at all."

After listening to a pregame speech in which Williams likened the game to "an alley fight" in which the team had to "come out swinging," the Aggies did just that.

Showing no signs of nervousness, underdog UCD jumped out to an 8-3 advantage and then proceeded to exchange scoring runs with KWC en route to a 43-35 halftime lead.

"We didn't want to get too confident (being up at the half)," Darmstadt said. "We just wanted to keep doing what we were having success with and stay calm."

The Aggies managed to maintain a slim lead throughout the second half, despite the huge inside presence of the Panthers' mammoth 252-pound, 6-foot-9-inch Antonio Garcia, who contributed 19 points and 16 rebounds.

But the Panthers crawled back into the game and assumed a 77-76 lead with time running down.

The Aggies would again call upon Cox, who calmly nailed a huge three-pointer from the top of the arc to give UCD a 79-77 lead with only 38 seconds to play.

"It surprised the hell out of me," said Cox of his clutch jumper. Cox led the Aggies with 18 points.

Ross added four free throws down the stretch to widen the margin of victory to the final of 83-77.

Both Ross and Cox were named to the all-tournament team.

"We came up big by hitting big shots," Williams said. "When it came to crunch time, our defense stepped up. They just did the same things they had done 30 other times when the game is on the line - they just made plays."

UCD players were even more blown away by the improbable title.