Maryville's Denae Fritz makes good on promise to dye hair pink but is frustrated by state loss

MURFREESBORO — Denae Fritz sat at a table, tears running down her cheeks, her  usually blonde hair now a bright pink. Maryville had just lost to Whitehaven, 66-63, in the Class AAA quarterfinals at MTSU's Murphy Center.

She'd made the offer to her teammates right before the season started: If the Lady Rebels made the state tournament, she would dye her hair pink. She'd come close her freshman and sophomore year, losing in the region semifinals and then the sectionals. 

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"We didn't really know she was going to do it until the day before we left (for Murfreesboro)," senior forward Grayson Patterson said. "We thought she was joking." 

She wasn't. She dyed it over the weekend by herself after helping lead the Lady Rebels to the state tournament for the first time since 1999 — before she was born. She surprised her teammates when she showed up to school. 

"(Making the state tournament was) my goal," said Fritz, a junior who was a semifinalist for the Miss Basketball award in Class AAA. "And I followed through." 

And against Whitehaven (28-3) she scored 16 points in the second half, including eight in the fourth quarter. Maryville (30-5) fought back from a 16-point deficit to start the  fourth quarter to a two-point deficit with under 10 seconds left. But the Lady Rebels missed both 3-pointers that would have given them the lead. 

Fritz, who is 5-foot-10, finished with 22 points, seven rebounds and two steals. But she was disappointed she wasn't able to help Maryville win its first girls basketball state championship. 

"It just hurts," she said. 

Fritz averaged 21 points and 11 rebounds this season. She has offers from Cincinnati, BYU and Lipscomb, among others.

"She's going up against everybody and she's beating everybody and she's a big-time athlete," Maryville coach Scott West said. "There's big-time schools after her and there's some other big-time schools that are missing out." 

As West said that, Fritz stared forward. She wasn't thinking about the game. She kept thinking about how the Lady Rebels season had ended. 

"Not being able to step back on the court hurts," she said.