Harris has been the Wahine’s glue girl

Briana Harris got a sample of senior night emotion a week early.

As part of Cal State Fullerton’s pregame senior ceremony on Feb. 25, the Titans presented Harris — Hawaii’s lone senior — with flowers, which she dutifully handed to her mother, Cheryl.

“My mom started crying and I was, ‘Please don’t do this now,’ ” Harris said, smiling at the memory. “It was a very emotional moment.”

Harris managed to lock back in before tip-off and drained her first three 3-pointers to ignite a 20-point performance in the Rainbow Wahine basketball team’s 55-45 win in Fullerton, Calif.

She will receive full senior honors tonight at the Stan Sheriff Center after UH (10-17, 6-9 Big West) faces Long Beach State (21-9, 12-3) to close the regular season.

Harris was the lone freshman signee when she arrived in Manoa in the summer of 2013 and will have the spotlight to herself for UH’s traditional senior night ceremony following the final buzzer. Along the way, the 5-foot-7 guard provided energy and offense while primarily playing off the bench throughout her four-year career.

“She has been the glue at times that has really held this young group together,” UH coach Laura Beeman said, “as far as the one that makes them laugh, and the one that gives them confidence, and the one they kind of look to.”

As a senior at St. Monica Catholic High School, Harris was initially headed to Mississippi for college before Beeman invited her for a recruiting visit. Harris already knew her host, former UH guard Sydney Haydel, and played against then-sophomore Destiny King in high school. Even so, coming in as the only freshman was “nerve wracking.”

“I wasn’t even 18 yet. … I was very nervous, very scared,” Harris said. “I didn’t know how they were going to approach me being new and being the only one. But as as a freshman you have to step up. You have to show them I can play too no matter how old I am.”

The welcome from her teammates allayed Harris’ initial anxiety and she introduced herself to the home crowd with a 21-point, five-assist performance in a win over Washington State in her Sheriff Center debut.

“She came in with the mind-set that she was going to be a contributor right away,” UH associate coach Alex Delanian said. “She had it in her mind early on that she wanted to make a mark on this program and I think she did.”

Harris helped UH capture the Big West regular-season title in a sophomore season capped by a 24-point night in a loss at Saint Mary’s in the WNIT. She contributed 8.4 points per game and hit 35 3-pointers last season in UH’s run to the NCAA tournament.

Surrounded by youth for her senior season, Harris enters tonight’s game second on the team with 9.8 points and 51 assists. She leads the Wahine with 34 steals and ranks eighth in program history with 98 made 3-pointers in her career, 28 coming this season.

Along with her on-court progress, Beeman said Harris’ growth outside the gym while adjusting to life isolated from her home in Inglewood, Calif., “has been exponential.”

“Not only did she have to grind things out on the basketball court and in the classroom, but she had to grind things out personally,” Beeman said.

“To have to work through some things on her own and figure it out for herself … I think that’s helped her grow up and I’m really proud of her.”

Harris will graduate in May with a degree in family resources and has aspirations of playing professional basketball overseas. After she’s done playing, she hopes to pass along guidance as a teacher and coach.

“Just working with kids and … just mentor them and tell them it’s hard work but you can make it if you do the proper things, like grades, and work hard on and off the court,” Harris said.

UH enters tonight’s game seventh in the Big West and can move up to sixth with a win and a Cal Poly loss at UC Santa Barbara. Either way, the Wahine will open the Big West tournament in a first-round game on Tuesday at LBSU’s Walter Pyramid.

Long Beach State has a double-bye into the semifinals on Friday after clinching a top-two seed along with first-place UC Davis. The 49ers can claim the top seed with a win tonight and a UC Davis loss at Cal State Northridge.