MILWAUKEE — Sean Pedulla stopped the bleeding on Friday afternoon.
Literally and figuratively, Ole Miss was bleeding out in the final minutes at Fiserv Forum.
North Carolina had cut Ole Miss’ 22 point lead to 66-64 with 1:09 left. RJ Davis had just nailed Matthew Murrell with an elbow, causing blood to flow from both of Murrell’s nostrils. Officials didn’t call a flagrant offensive foul. Instead, they awarded Davis a layup and a foul.
Ole Miss’ offense, so free-flowing and beautiful in the first half, had slowed to a painful slog in the closing minutes.
Enter Pedulla. The Virginia Tech transfer knocked down a massive 3-pointer from the left wing with 52.8 seconds left, pushing Ole Miss’ lead back to 69-64, the biggest moment in a 71-64 first-round NCAA Tournament win.
“Coming out of the timeout, we had something drawn up,” Pedulla said. “What was going through my mind was just, ‘Get a good shot off. Play confident. Don’t think too much.’ He went under the screen, so I shot it. That’s what I did.”
Pedulla, who has made big shots during his career at Virginia Tech and Ole Miss, said Friday’s dagger versus North Carolina was his biggest yet.
“At that point of the game, they were on a huge run and we needed that bucket,” Pedulla said. “So I shot it with confidence and the rest was in God’s hands.”
North Carolina never got closer. Drake Powell’s 3-pointer missed and Ole Miss got the ball back to Pedulla. The Tar Heels had to foul, putting Pedulla on the free throw line for a 1-and-1 situation. Pedulla calmly knocked down both free throws to push the lead to seven.
It stayed there, as North Carolina came up empty and Ole Miss got key defensive rebounds to put the game away, moving the Rebels to the second round Sunday versus Iowa State.
“I was really impressed with the poise of our guys in the last couple of minutes of the game,” Ole Miss coach Chris Beard said. “As a coach, you never want to be out of timeouts but we just had to use some of those timeouts to solve some issues in the second half. But I thought we did a good job late executing on offense and getting the ball where we wanted it to be and getting the ball inbounds even when we didn’t have timeouts.”
It was Ole Miss’ first NCAA Tournament win in 10 years, the first victory on this stage since beating BYU in Dayton, Ohio, in 2015. It’s the first time Ole Miss has advanced to the second round of the NCAA Tournament since 2013, when the Rebels lost to LaSalle after beating Wisconsin in Kansas City. It was the seventh NCAA Tournament win in program history.
“It’s really special,” Pedulla said. “I love it for the Ole Miss fans and for our family and friends and everything, but I especially love it for this group of guys that I go to battle with every single day and this coaching staff that puts in countless hours so that we can succeed as a team. There’s a whole lot of sacrifice that goes into a day like today.”
Ole Miss was dominant early, building a 44-26 lead.
“The first half was one of our best halves of the year,” Beard said. “That’s what it takes in the NCAA Tournament. …We knew the comeback was coming. Sure enough, it did.”
Did it ever. North Carolina (23-14) held Ole Miss scoreless for almost six minutes, using an 11-0 run to bring the massive Tar Heels fan base to a crescendo. Ole Miss refused to panic.
“It’s just having a veteran team,” Ole Miss guard JuJu Murray, who was part of an Elite Eight run at St. Peter’s in 2022, said. “It’s something that we talk about all the time. We know North Carolina is a super-talented team. When they went on a run, it was just about not panicking. We’ve been through this before. We just came down, executed plays and got a stop.”
Pedulla led Ole Miss with 20 points. Dre Davis had 15 points and eight rebounds. Jaemyn Brakefield added 12 points.
RJ Davis led North Carolina with 15 points. Ven-Allen Rubin added 14 for the Tar Heels.
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