It wasn't the homecoming that Ole Miss junior guard Gracie Frizzell wanted Thursday afternoon.
Frizzell, who played high school basketball at Central Arkansas Christian, had 11 points, 3 rebounds and 1 steal Thursday in Ole Miss' second-round game at the SEC Women's Tournament, but the Rebels lost to Arkansas 72-61 at Verizon Arena in North Little Rock.
"I wish we could've won," Frizzell said. "I take it as not just coming home, but thinking of it as an away game. My family is my team.
"Being home in Little Rock is good, because my family and friends came out and supported the Rebs, but I wish we could've won."
It was Frizzell's first college game in central Arkansas as a Rebel. Frizzell was part of three state tournament teams at CAC before suffering an ACL injury during her senior year. She redshirted in the 2011-2012 season but has been a key contributor to the Rebels over the past three seasons.
"I'm glad she's an Ole Miss Rebel," Ole Miss Coach Matt Insell said of Frizzell, who entered Thursday's game averaging 6.6 points per game. "She's as good of a shooter as there is. We have to get more Little Rock girls over here to Ole Miss. I think that's going to happen, too."
Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes credited guards McKinley Bostad and Kelsey Brooks for their defensive effort against Frizzell.
"Frizzell can really shoot that basketball," Dykes said. "I know she had 11 points today, but they made her work for everything she got and did a really good job of covering her."
Not too crowded
The wintry weather that passed through central Arkansas this week couldn't stop the SEC Women's Tournament, but it altered the second day's schedule and made for a different atmosphere Thursday afternoon.
Rather than playing two sessions Thursday as originally planned, the SEC opted for one session with each game beginning 25 minutes after the conclusion of the previous game.
Sleet and snow that moved through the area Wednesday night and Thursday morning led to the cancellation of schools in the greater Little Rock area, and Arkansas Coach Jimmy Dykes hoped that might help his team in its game against Ole Miss.
"I told a couple of people on the bus maybe the schools being closed might actually help us, because the roads clear up and there's nothing to do, let's go watch the Hogs," Dykes said.
No official attendance was announced until after Thursday's final game, but the seats in the end zone areas behind each basket remained unfilled and the crowd was sparse.
Still, Arkansas fans who were on hand made themselves heard during a 13-3 run in the middle of the first half of the Razorbacks' 72-61 victory.
"They were phenomenal," Dykes said. "That building got pretty loud there for awhile right behind our bench."
Ole Miss Coach Matt Insell said his team left Oxford, Miss., on Tuesday to avoid the impending storm. The Rebels made it fine while driving through rain, but Athletic Director Ross Bjork's plan to fly in Thursday was derailed as were the plans of many Rebels fans.
"I probably had 50, 60 different people call me this morning: 'Coach, we can't be there,' " Ole Miss Coach Matt Insell said. "I hate that our fans weren't able to see us, but they watched at home and they're proud of this basketball team."
Wednesday's attendance was announced at 1,915, the smallest for a the tournament's first session since 1993.
An SEC official said Thursday there was no plan to change today's schedule, which features four quarterfinal games with the top four seeds (South Carolina, LSU, Tennessee and Mississippi State).
Campaigning
Texas A&M Coach Gary Blair said he appreciated the crowd on hand Thursday at Verizon Arena for the second round of the tournament, but he's hoping for a better showing today as road conditions in central Arkansas are expected to improve.
Inclement weather has hurt attendance for the tournament, the first at Verizon Arena since 2009, but Blair noted that today's matchups will feature several ties to Arkansas.
The Razorbacks play No. 2 South Carolina at noon in the opening game. Blair, who coached at Arkansas (1993-2003) before leaving for Texas A&M, will lead the Aggies against LSU in the second game, and Mississippi State Coach Vic Schaefer, Blair's former assistant at Arkansas (1997-2003), will lead the Bulldogs in the final game of the night.
"Hopefully the weather will be beautiful," Blair said. "The sun's going to melt everything, the snowmen are going to melt. We need people to come out and see top-quality women's basketball.
"There is nothing better than Friday of a SEC Tournament. You've got eight teams that are NCAA playoff teams. It does not get any better. You'll never have the men playing in a situation like this right here in Arkansas.
"Let's embrace it and hopefully you'll host a regional here someday because it's a perfect venue here. The facility is great."
Sports on 03/06/2015