The Ole Miss Lady Rebels open SEC tournament play Thursday in Little Rock, Arkansas at noon against the Arkansas Razorbacks.
The Rebels closed out the regular-season slate with a 17-12, 7-9 SEC record and earned the No. 8 seed into the conference tournament. After a 55-47 loss to in-state rival Mississippi State on Sunday.
Coach Matt Insell likes where the team is at right now going into the SEC tournament, saying they are 0-0 now and have had a great season thus far and getting post-season eligible is huge.
Ole Miss is 100 precent in the National Invitational Tournament and needs to win two more games to secure a berth into the NCAA Tournament.
This year’s tournament location will be a homecoming for junior Gracie Frizzell who played her prep basketball at Central Arkansas Christian High School.
Arkansas comes into the tournament with a 16-12 overall record and 6-10 mark in the SEC. The Razorbacks have dropped two straight games.
“The Razorbacks have not changed as they are playing better together like they where when we faced them before with a lot of the same things with some new wrinkles,” Insell said. “We did a really good job at defending (Kelsey) Brooks and (Jessica) Jackson because if you play Arkansas and they get going they will be tough to beat.”
Arkansas is led by a trio of players on offense in Jackson who is averaging a team-best 14.6 points each time out on the floor, Brooks is on her heels with teammate Jhasmin Bowen who are adding 14.4 and 11.2 points per game respectively.
Thursday’s afternoon game will be the second time this season Ole Miss and Arkansas have squared off with the Rebels winning 71-57 in Oxford. This will be the third straight meeting between the teams in the SEC Tournament. Last season, Ole Miss won 63-62 in Duluth, Georgia.
Ole Miss will face top-seeded South Carolina on Friday in the third round of the tournament with a win over Arkansas.
Fans can watch the first three rounds of the SEC Tournament on SEC Network.
Adam Brown is HottyToddy.com sports editor and can be reached at adam.brown@hottytoddy.com.
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