NORFOLK, Va. – Lone senior
Bria Harris exited the court for the final time as an Eagle with 43 seconds remaining. Once she reached the bench, Harris shook hands with each of her coaches and teammates while trying to keep the tears at bay.
"Coppin really helped me to grow and mature as a young woman," Harris said following her final collegiate contest, a 66-52 setback to second-seeded Savannah State in quarterfinals of the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Tournament Wednesday afternoon. "We all make mistakes at times, but it's really about how you pick yourself after you make them. I learned that I always can't be down, I have to be able to get through the failure. That makes character and I really learned that here. I love all my coaches. They've always been there for me, supported me and molded me into the senior they wanted me to become."
This season, Harris stepped into a leadership role that previously had been shared between last year's three seniors. She took her new role in stride, embracing the responsibility and offering guidance to the younger players that will only get better.
"She took me under her wing when I was a freshman and she was a sophomore," Swails said. "As she was the lone senior, she looked to us to help her. We're going to miss her. She did bring a lot of enthusiasm, rebounds and smart plays to the team. We're going to have to step up next year.
In 99 appearances, Harris had 511 career points, 437 rebounds, 63 steals, 39 assists and 36 blocks. She had 17 career double figure scoring games, 12 of which have occurred this season. Harris pulled down double digit rebounds seven times this season and nine times in her career. She led Coppin State in rebounding 13 times this season and averaged a team-best 6.8 boards per outing.
"She's come a long way since her freshman year," Coppin State head women's basketball coach
Derek Brown said. "She's going to graduate on time. A lot of the reason why I'm here is to have these ladies graduate and graduate on time."
Even though her team couldn't get the win, Harris has plenty to look forward to in the near future. The criminal justice major will graduate in May.
"I'm graduating," Harris said. "I made it this far. It means a lot because I don't have anybody in my family that's a student-athlete. The fact that I'm graduating in four years without taking breaks and didn't leave school just to come back years later to finish is a big accomplishment. I got it done in the amount of time I was supposed to and got to play Division I basketball. I thank coach Wilson and Raikes for recruiting me and coach Brown for accepting me. Without them, I wouldn't be here and I'm thankful that I did it because of them."
Against Savannah State, Harris did all she could to help the Eagles despite collecting two fouls in the opening three minutes of play. With Harris sidelined, other Eagles had to step up, including redshirt freshman guard
Genesis Lucas who had 13 points, four steals, three assists and three rebounds. Junior guard
Jordan Swails also added 13 points to the mix, along with seven boards. Coppin State ended the season with a 7-22 record.
"It's tough to get yourself back up," Brown said. "I'm not making excuses, they played better than we did today. They were more physical, they were quicker. We played hard. We had a very emotional game yesterday and to pick yourself back up after being on an emotional high then coming down and trying to get back up again, it's difficult for these young ladies. I think they did all they could, but we just ran into a team that, especially after Hampton lost, were probably super high being the No. 2 seed. It's their tournament to win now and they played well enough today to win."
Savannah State (19-10) was paced by Jasmine Norman and Ezinne Kalu, each finishing with 16 points to help the Tigers advance to Friday's semifinal round to face either No. 3 North Carolina A&T or No. 6 Bethune-Cookman, which will be streamed live on www.ESPN3.com at 2:30 p.m.
Harris can also smile knowing that she is leaving Coppin State in good hands as the Eagles will have five seniors in next year's lineup. Brown hopes his team will grow from its experiences this year and strive for even better.
"I think we learned a lot, even though our record didn't show it," Brown said. "Throughout the year there was a learning process going on. We sort of hit a perfect storm as far as our schedule was concerned. Our schedule wasn't kind to us and we lost some games coming down the stretch that we should've won but I think in the end, this Morgan game really helped us a lot and helped our psyche for next year. They understand what it's going to take to get into the championship game next year. I think they see it. We'll see how much work they put in during the offseason to get themselves better and go for a championship next year."
