Harris, BCU headed to big dance

Published 9:29 pm Monday, March 18, 2019

Suffolk native Camary Harris and the Bethune-Cookman University women’s basketball team will head to the NCAA tournament.

The former King’s Fork High School standout will get to play on the biggest stage college basketball has to offer. Over the weekend, BCU won the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference tournament, securing an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Harris was able to provide big minutes as a freshman in the team’s quest for a bid to the Big Dance.

BCU went into the tournament as a third seed and was able to beat the 11th-, second- and fourth-seeded teams to secure the conference title. It was the first tournament title for BCU since 1984 and its first time ever getting a bid to the Big Dance.

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In all three games combined, Harris averaged around 25 minutes per game to go along with 6.3 points per game. She was third on the team in scoring with 10 in the championship game against Norfolk State University.

“I’m feeling like a champion right now,” Harris said a day after their championship victory. “I’m just really thankful because honestly a lot of freshmen in college basketball really don’t get this opportunity, so I’m really happy to be a part of this as a freshman.”

Along their journey to the tournament, BCU lost some key players to season-ending injuries, so Harris and her teammates knew what they had to do coming into the tournament. They got the job accomplished.

As for Harris being a freshman, after her first game, her coach told her she wasn’t a freshman anymore. She knew that playing the point guard position comes with a lot of responsibility but gave credit to her coaches and teammates for instilling confidence in her.

“Coach Blair tells me and the other freshmen after our first game, we aren’t freshmen anymore,” Harris said. “I don’t feel any pressure. I just go in and do my part like I’m supposed to — be that floor general inside of those four lines because I know how important the position is, and everyone is depending on me at the point.”

Bethune-Cookman will hold the No. 16 seed in their region and will face the No. 1 seed, Notre Dame. Game time will be 11 a.m. Saturday on ESPN2.