Pulling on her customary No. 25 jersey meant a little bit more for Amy Atwell on Friday.

Atwell owned the number over the entirety of a six-year run in the University of Hawaii women’s basketball program.

She wore it again on Friday, this time on a Los Angeles Sparks uniform as she made her WNBA debut.

“Definitely a different feeling from the preseason. I’ve had the honor to wear the jersey twice (in preseason), but tonight is going to be a different feeling,” Atwell said a few hours before the Sparks’ opener against the defending WNBA champion Chicago Sky on Friday.

A day after being listed on the Sparks’ opening-night roster, Atwell — the Rainbow Wahine program’s all-time leading 3-point shooter — was announced among Los Angeles’ starting five for the opener in Chicago.

Atwell spent 7 minutes, 44 seconds on the floor, going 0-for-2 from 3-point range in the Sparks 98-91 overtime win in Chicago.

Earning one of the 13 roster spots wasn’t assured even after Atwell was selected by the Sparks with the 27th overall pick in the WNBA Draft on April 11. She went through training camp and capped her audition by going 6-for-6 from 3-point range in a 19-point performance against Phoenix on Sunday.

“I knew I had to go out there and show something because I didn’t shoot great against Seattle and that’s what I needed to show I could do to make the roster,” Atwell said. “It was a great feeling to hit my first one and really get that feeling going.”

Over the next two days, “there was a lot of uncertainty all morning because we knew there had to be extra cuts made and it was just sitting around waiting,” Atwell said.

Word that she’d made the roster arrived in the form of a message to the team saying “the shuttles are picking you up from the hotel, you’re on the way to the airport to Chicago.

“We all got to the airport and that’s when it really sunk in.”

The Sparks released their opening-night roster on Thursday, and Atwell’s phone was buzzing soon after — she made sure to share the news with UH coach Laura Beeman.

“I was in tears for her just for the fact that she’s worked so hard and this is a dream for so many people and to see her accomplishing this, just absolutely ecstatic for her,” Beeman said.

Atwell’s professional debut on Friday extended a remarkable 2021-22 season for the forward from Australia.

Atwell was named the Big West Player of the Year and helped the Wahine pair the conference’s regular-season and tournament titles for the first time in program history. She closed her UH career by hitting six 3-pointers in a 29-point outburst against Baylor in the NCAA Tournament.

That performance helped draw attention from the Sparks, who used their third-round pick to make Atwell only the second UH player to be taken in the WNBA Draft.

“The biggest factor for Amy was getting herself in physical shape that allowed her to show her skill set,” Beeman said. “And when she did that, Amy opened up the door for her to have this opportunity.”

Getting into camp gave Atwell a chance to compete with and against players she’d followed from afar.

“It’s been very cool,” Atwell said. “It’s kind of like a dream come true and I’m trying to soak in all that knowledge from girls like Liz Cambage and Nneka (Ogwumike) and those girls who have been around and I’ve watched on TV. It’s kind of an unreal experience.”

Cambage, a four-time all-star, is also from Australia, and “we’ve kind of got the big sister, little sister relationship going on right now. She’s taken me under her wing a little bit — having that familiar voice and accent around is definitely nice.”

Atwell is the lone Big West product in the 12-team league and looked forward to representing UH on a WNBA stage.

“It means a lot, and it’s something I take a lot of pride in,” Atwell said. “Especially having repped Hawaii for six years and knowing I still have that whole state behind me gives me that much more motivation and pride in everything I’m doing now.”