Ole Miss came to close repeating its Thursday performance against No. 1-seed Auburn in the quarterfinal round of the SEC Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The Rebels closed an eight-point deficit with 79 seconds left to play into a 60-57 game with Auburn leading. But national player of the year candidate Johni Broome showed why he’s one of the nation’s two best players.
The Tigers took over possession following a pair of Jaylen Murray free throws to cut the Tigers’ lead to three points with 38 seconds left. The Tigers inbounded the ball cleanly, something they had issues with late against Ole Miss, and methodically found a way to get the ball into Broome’s hands down low and Broome made an easy bucket to make the score 62-57.
💪💪💪@DAndreDavis x #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/SIwUlVkBoT
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) March 14, 2025
Thursday’s here for Ole Miss, Sean Pedulla, took a deep three-point shot but his shot came up short and Auburn celebrated a hard-fought win. Broome grabbed Pedulla’s missed three-pointer for his 15th rebound of the game. He also had a game-high 23 points (8-14 field goals).
Pedulla and Dre Davis led Ole Miss with 12 points and Malik Dia and Murray had 10 points. Dia had a team-high seven rebounds. Overall, it wasn’t a great game for the Rebels. They shot 38 percent from the field, and was 4-of-23 from beyond the arc, was out-rebounded 38-28 and lost the turnover battle 15-10.
Sean takes it the other way 💨
Our 285th steal of the season, tied for 3rd most in school history@PedullaSean x #HottyToddy pic.twitter.com/0jijuGMy6q
— Ole Miss Men’s Basketball (@OleMissMBB) March 14, 2025
But what kept the Rebels in the game was the 18 points scored off of turnovers (Auburn had just six) and the 11 second-chance points scored (Auburn had only four).
Ole Miss will now have to wait to find out where it’s headed in the NCAA Tournament next week. The Rebels are expected to be one of 12-13 SEC teams to play in the tournament and they’ll learn their fate at 5 p.m. Sunday on CBS.
