WACO, Texas >> Amy Atwell took the stage wearing her No. 25 jersey one more time.
The University of Hawaii forward had just finished her six-year collegiate basketball career with a 29-point performance under a national spotlight and wasn’t ready to turn in her uniform just yet.
“I kind of made a joke — I’m still in my uniform because I’m not taking it off,” Atwell said in the postgame press conference following UH’s loss to Baylor in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday. “Like, you’re not getting this back.”
Atwell completed a decorated, and lengthy, Rainbow Wahine career as the program’s all-time leader in 3-point goals and seventh in scoring with Friday’s performance against the host Bears at the Ferrell Center. But beyond the numbers Atwell amassed with the program, UH coach Laura Beeman noted part of the Big West Player of the Year’s legacy will be evidenced in the girls clamoring to wear 25 for their teams.
“I have actually had young girls in the state of Hawaii come to me and say, ‘What number is Amy? That’s what I want to be on my travel ball, and which one is Amy? I want her autograph,’” Beeman said.
“I think over time there are now a bunch of young girls that have been able to watch her grow over six years that can say, ‘I want to be her.’ Not just a Rainbow Wahine — ‘I want to be her.’”
Returning for her “super senior” season, Atwell served as a role model within an otherwise youthful roster to help lead the Rainbow Wahine to the Big West regular-season and tournament championships and into the NCAA Tournament bracket for the first time since 2016.
Her run in Manoa ended with Friday’s 89-49 loss in Texas to a Baylor team led by forward NaLyssa Smith, who helped power the Bears with 21 points and 14 rebounds and could be the top pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft.
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Atwell did all she could to keep the Wahine within striking distance in a 20-point first half in which she drained four 3-pointers and drew fouls on two more attempts for another six points from the free-throw line. She accounted for all but nine of UH’s points in the first half and the Wahine went into halftime trailing 38-29.
While the Bears overpowered UH in the third quarter to break away, Atwell hit two more 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and added 13 rebounds to her final scoring total and delivered a statement on her prospects to play at the next level.
“If she doesn’t already have a phone call, I’ll be shocked,” Beeman said. “She should get a look, because when you think about it, say Amy has a post player like NaLyssa Smith around her, how do you come off Amy to go guard her? So Amy is a game plan.
“I think she’s going to get some looks. I told her in the locker room, and I’ve told her this before, wherever her opening game is in the world, if I can fly, I’ll be there and watch her play her first pro game. I hope it’s in the United States.”
Atwell arrived in Hawaii in the fall of 2016 and spent her first year as a homesick freshman from South Perth, Australia, recovering from a knee injury in a redshirt season. Over the following five years, she scored 1,270 points to jump into seventh in UH history and set school records with 205 3-pointers over 126 games played.
She came out of the locker room firing on Friday to deliver a memorable parting shot in her final appearance in a Hawaii uniform.
“I kind of came out with the mindset of I’m going to go out swinging,” Atwell said. “This could have potentially (been) and was my last game, so I wasn’t going to go out not shooting the ball, which is what I’ve been known for throughout my career.
“It was just that mindset coming in. I was like, I’m not going to not shoot the ball if this is going to be the last time I step on the court in a Hawaii jersey.”
