LAS CRUCES, N.M. -- Thirty years from now, when people see that picture, that will be her in the front row holding the trophy.
Oh, they will have forgotten Erica Henry's name by then. They can hardly remember it now.
She's a senior who's never been a star, never averaged double figures. Her coach says she's the best low-post defender in the league, but she wasn't named to any all-defensive teams. She's slower than a poor man's tax return. Jumps like someone who's had two meniscus surgeries.
"I've never been this high," she joked, climbing the Pan American Center ladder to cut down her piece of net.
You could say the same thing for the whole program.
The Fresno State women's basketball team has earned its first NCAA Tournament. They won the Western Athletic Conference tournament Saturday.
Fresno State 72, New Mexico State 56 in the final.
Their bid might be automatic, but when you've been playing basketball for 43 years and never been asked to The Dance, the fine print on the invitation doesn't mean a thing.
This is no big deal in Storrs, Conn., or Knoxville, Tenn., or Ruston, La., but it mattered here, mattered to this team and mattered to its school.
"It's gonna be mind-blowing just being a part of history," said freshman Jaleesa Ross.
The Bulldogs didn't sneak into the NCAAs, they flung open double-doors. Fresno State played pretty average basketball Saturday, and still won the WAC tournament title game by 16 points on the opponent's home court.
The crazy part is, they stood there holding history and nearly let it float off. They didn't stumble out of the gate in this one, the gate didn't even open.
Freshman Hayley Munro, who had been so good throughout the tournament, missed the first shot. Freshman Emma Andrews clanked the next. Then Tierre Wilson got the ball smacked away. Soon after, Munro turned and made a nice pass, the only problem being none of her teammates was on that side of the court.
"Definitely butterflies," Wilson said.
Butterflies with claws, apparently. It only got worse. Wilson made a bad pass. The first substitute, Marnique Arnold, was on the floor exactly 22 seconds before she made a turnover.
Those Bulldogs fans who faithfully stand each half until their team scores were starting to look weary. The game was 5 minutes old before Fresno State finally made a shot, and that was an airballed 3-pointer that Henry rescued and rehabilitated into a pass.
When all those talented teenagers got nervous, their den mother was there to bail them out.
"Coach Henry," they call her.
"Erica's the heart of the team," Ross said.
Saturday, she was its safety harness.
She grabbed the game's first rebound. Then another. Then she salvaged the airball. A few minutes later, she took a charge.
A couple minutes later, Ross missed, then Munro missed and finally Henry grabbed it and put it in.
The next possession Munro missed again, and who was there? Henry to the rescue and to the foul line.
If you think we surely must be skipping over Fresno State highlights, then you surely didn't see it. The Bulldogs looked lost. Finally, as halftime approached, they made a couple good passes, figured out the New Mexico State zone could be attacked in the middle.
The next possession, Aggies' forward Hannah Spanich drove down the baseline, Henry stepped over, crumpled and took another charge.
No one falls quite as painfully as Erica Henry. You'd swear she has arthritis the way she gets up. It's always been that way. Officer John McClane didn't look as battered in those "Die Hard" movies.
"Just being a college athlete, you go through a lot, body-wise," she said afterward. "If I'd have two broken legs, I'd have played this basketball game. It wouldn't have mattered."
New Mexico State could never pull away. Henry held on too tightly. As the half ended, she grabbed a defensive rebound, followed the fast break, got a miss and laid it in.
Fresno State had played an awful half and led 28-23. Henry already had seven points and 10 rebounds.
Everyone in the arena knew it was over. The Aggies' window had closed. In the second half, the 3-pointers swished and then came that part of the game where Wilson makes layups and everyone else looks like they're trying to finish a marathon.
Henry kept it close. The one who gets no credit. The one who took a pass to the face in the first game and played the tournament with tissue shoved up her nose. The one whose only awards are for her GPA.
"I've helped lead this team, and that's all that matters to me," she said.
She was the first to flash the we're gonna win, smile, at midcourt with 1:42 left. She was the first to be pulled for an ovation, the first to slap everyone's hand down the bench, the first to cling to the trophy as if it were her pacemaker.
Will they remember her name in another 36 years of Fresno State basketball? Probably not. But she'll always be in that team photo, the one they took on a basketball court one Saturday afternoon in southern New Mexico.
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