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Ole Miss comes up short in third meeting with Auburn, exits SEC Tournament

11by:Jake Thompson•about 10 hours•

JakeThompsonOn3

Syndication: The Tennessean
Auburn guard Tahaad Pettiford (0) and Mississippi guard Davon Barnes (7) go after the ball after an errant pass during the second half of their quarterfinal game of the SEC Men's Basketball Tournament at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tenn., Friday, March 14, 2025. Mandatory credit: © Denny Simmons / The Tennessean / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

When Ole Miss and Auburn met during the regular season each game was about offense. The third meeting of the season, this time at the SEC Tournament, was all about defense.

The 1 Seed Tigers ended the 8 Seed Rebels run in Nashville with a 62-57 defeat in the quarterfinals. A game where it was there for the taking if Ole Miss had not encountered its scoring deficiencies again.

A day after being the hero it was a tough game for Sean Pedulla. There was not a three-point shot at the buzzer this time as Pedulla finished with 12 points, tying with Dre Davis to lead the Rebels.

While Thursday was a another free shot game for Ole Miss (22-10) after beating Arkansas in the second round, it was another winnable game.

“Good, hard-fought game. Congratulate Auburn on a victory,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “Defensive game. Easy baskets were hard to find throughout the game. If we hold Auburn to 62 points, we should have a chance to win the game, and we did. Thought we played some good defense today.”

Auburn (28-4) hit six of its last eight shots while the Rebels missed eight of their final 10 shots. Pedulla, Matthew Murrell and Jaylen ‘JuJu’ Murray were a combined 0-12 from three-point range.

Any combination of those shots going in and Ole Miss might be sitting and waiting for the winner of Texas and Tennessee in Saturday’s semifinals.

Murray and Malik Dia each finished with 10 points.

The SEC player of the year Johni Broome took over the game late for Auburn, finishing with a game-high 23 points.

“He was the difference in the game,” Beard said. “Broome, in a one-possession game, he goes 23-15. I think he’s worthy of all the attention and awards he’s winning. You saw it today all the way down to the last play.”

Instead Beard and the Rebels head back to Oxford where they now wait two days to see where they will land in the NCAA Tournament.

This will be the first time since 2019 the Rebels are dancing and the two-game stay served as a nice warm up to what will happen starting next weekend.

“The message for the team moving forward is we’ve always had kind of the same model in March,” Beard said. “Two things, really simple. We tell the players we want to be us. Why? Because us is pretty good. We’re one of the best teams in the country. We’re going to get a nice seed, at-large bid in the tournament. Let’s not show up to the NCAA tournament and be somebody we’re not. Let’s be the best version of us.”

Ole Miss will host a watch party on Sunday at Funky’s with doors opening at 11 a.m. CT with the selection show starting at 5 p.m. CT on CBS.

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