Ole Miss Withstands Tar Heel Rally & Edges MBB, 71-64

Friday, March 21

Milwaukee, Wis.

4:05 PM

North Carolina

23-14,13-7ACC

Ole Miss (First Round)

23-11,10-8SEC

North Carolina

Ole Miss

RJ Davis

Photo by: Maggie Hobson

March 21, 2025 | Men's Basketball

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By: Matt Bowers

MILWAUKEE, WIS.— No. 6 seed Ole Miss built a huge, early lead, withstood a furious North Carolina rally and held on to beat the 11th-seeded Tar Heels, 71-64, on Friday afternoon in the NCAA South Region first round at the Fiserv Forum.

The Rebels dominated the first half and led, 44-26 at halftime. The 18-point deficit was Carolina's second-largest NCAA Tournament halftime deficit ever and highest since 1967. They increased their lead to a game-high 22 at 50-28 after barely two minutes of the second half.

After looking listless for much of the game to that point, the Tar Heels roared back and outscored the Rebels, 36-16 over a span of 16:25 to pull within a basket at 66-64 with 1:09 to play.

From that point, Ole Miss' Sean Pedulla scored the game's last five points to seal the win and end Carolina's season. Pedulla finished with a game-high 20 points, six rebounds and five assists. His layup with 2:56 to go snapped a Rebel scoreless streak of nearly six minutes during the comeback.

"They brought the physical, competitive fight in the first half," head coach Hubert Davis said. "Every category, every angle, in regards to physicality, they not only won in the first half, they dominated us. There were only two choices coming out in the second half, either to respond with that same type of fight or get embarrassed. And I was really proud of how our guys fought back competitively and got back into the game."

Despite how well UNC played for most of the second half, it couldn't overcome its slow start. Carolina never led, and the game was never tied after Ole Miss took a 2-0 lead in the first minute.

The Rebels (23-11) won their third game in their last five decisions and ended the Tar Heels' season at 23-14. Carolina fell to 34-3 all-time in the NCAA Tournament round of 64 and 6-2 against No. 6 seeds.

UNC is 8-3 in NCAA play in three appearances under Davis.

Ole Miss advanced to Sunday's South Region second round to play No. 6 seed Iowa State, which beat No. 14 seed Lipscomb, 82-55, earlier on Friday in Milwaukee.

Playing his ACC-record 175th and final game as a Tar Heel, RJ Davis led the team with 15 points, adding three rebounds and three assists. Ven-Allen Lubin was limited by foul trouble for much of the second half and fouled out with 21 seconds left but still finished with 14 points on 6 of 7 shooting.

"I have a lot of emotions going through my head right now. It's hard to pinpoint at just one direct emotion," Davis said after the game. "But just battling through the first half, obviously not playing a pretty good game and coming to the second half and battling all the way to the one-minute mark, it's a two-point game, it just describes our whole season from being up-and-down year, being a difficult year, and persevering.

"I think that's the best way to put it. And we were resilient, so I think to come up short like that, it sucks, it hurts. For us being a resilient team and persevering when things don't go our way, when we get knocked down we get right back up. I think that's what we did in the second half. We just came up short."

No other Tar Heel reached double figures in points, but Jalen Washington was impressive with a strong second half after Lubin went to the bench with foul difficulties. Washington hit 4 of 5 shots and contributed eight points and eight rebounds in 17 overall minutes.

Seth Trimble scored nine points with four rebounds, and Drake Powell had eight points, seven rebounds and four assists with the type of all-around game that became typical for him in the second half of the season.

"We were really lifeless in the first half," Trimble said. "We had no passion. We had no joy. We looked like the group we were a few months ago. We were fortunate enough to listen to what the coaches had to say in the second half. We checked ourselves. We got checked. And everybody kind of just looked in the mirror, and, that second half it was clear we just played with passion, with joy and we played for each other. We were a team in that second half. That was the biggest difference. We weren't in that first half."

In addition to Pedulla's 20 points, Dre Davis added 15 points on 6 of 9 shooting with eight rebounds for the Rebels.

Although Ole Miss entered the game as the nation's top team in forcing turnovers, it committed more miscues than the Tar Heels in the game (14-9). The Rebels won the battle of the boards, however, 40-34.

Carolina shot 20.8 percent from three-point range (5 for 24), including a 2 for 13 (15.4 percent) effort in the second half. The Tar Heels lost for the ninth in the 11 games this season when shooting under 30 percent from three.

How It Happened
First Half
• Carolina started its regular recent lineup of Elliot Cadeau, Davis, Powell, Lubin and Jae'Lyn Withers. That lineup finished 8-2 this season.
• The Rebels jumped out to a quick, 11-2 lead, forcing a UNC timeout at the 16:45 mark, hitting 3 of 4 three-pointers in the first three-plus minutes while Carolina missed 3 of 4 from the floor.
• Ole Miss hit 10 of its first 13 shots, including 6 of 7 threes, while Carolina started 5 for 13 and 2 for 7.
• The Rebels eventually led by 18 points at the break, 44-26.

Second Half
• Ole Miss increased its lead to a game-high 22 points at 50-28 with 17:48 left in the game.
• UNC cut the deficit to four points with under 5:00 remaining, using an 11-0 run to make the score 63-59.
• Washington played valuable minutes in the second half with Lubin limited by foul trouble and Withers injured.
• Carolina held Ole Miss scoreless for nearly six minutes until a Pedulla layup with 2:56 to play.
• RJ Davis' three-point play with 1:09 left made the score 66-64 Ole Miss, then Pedulla hit a three-pointer (the Rebels' first of the second half) with 52 seconds left to up the lead back to five at 69-64. Ole Miss had missed nine three-point tries in a row before Pedulla connected.
• After Powell missed a free throw from the wing, the Rebels got the rebound and converted two free throws to lead, 71-64 with 34 ticks left.