MILWAUKEE – Ole Miss didn’t make its fans hang on for dear life this time around.

Two days after nearly surrendering a 22-point lead to No. 11 North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, sixth-seeded Ole Miss took down third-seeded Iowa State 91-78 in the Round of 32 at Fiserv Forum on Sunday night. With the win, Ole Miss advances to its second Sweet 16 ever and first since 2001. The Rebels will face No. 2 seed Michigan State on Friday in Atlanta at 6 p.m. on CBS.

The Rebels (24-11) hit 11 3-pointers, scored 20 points off 15 Cyclone turnovers and led for more than 31 minutes. Senior guard Sean Pedulla led the Rebels with 20 points, and junior forward Malik Dia scored 18 points.

“It hasn’t been done recently, but telling these guys what we thought we could do at Ole Miss, they trusted us enough to come,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “Excited about the players. All my thoughts are on those guys. We came here to win a four-team tournament. So, two down. It takes six to win the whole thing.”

Ole Miss led Iowa State (25-10) by 12 at halftime behind a stingy defense that held the Cyclones to just 38% shooting from the field, and 14 first-half points from Dia.

Iowa State dominated the glass early, notching five rebounds – including four offensive – in the game’s first four minutes, leading to more than twice as many shot attempts as the Rebels. The first 12 minutes saw each team have runs of at least nine straight points, including a 12-0 Rebels run midway through the period that put them up by 11 with 7:22 to play.

Pedulla, who was the hero in Friday’s game with his late dagger 3-pointer against North Carolina, scored 10 points in the first.

“We just kind of had a disappointing start because we spent a day-and-a-half talking about some offensive spacing and objectives, and we just kind of did quite the opposite early,” Beard said. “But give the guys credit, we got a poised group. They allow me to be me, especially JuJu (Murray), he always calms me down. I thought we did a great job of executing the game plan for 35 of the 40 minutes, and the big part of the game plan was trying to take care of the basketball.”

Unlike Friday against the Tar Heels, the Rebels didn’t present many opportunities for Iowa State to get back in the game in the second half. Ole Miss shot nearly 68% from the field in the second – hitting 6 of 8 3-point tries – and seniors Matthew Murrell and Jaemyn Brakefield each scored 12 points over the final 20 minutes. The Rebels led by 26 with less than six minutes to play.

Iowa State made a bit of a run late, hitting 8 of 9 shots to cut Ole Miss’ lead down to 10 with 1:19 remaining. But back-to-back baskets from Murrell and Brakefield sealed the deal and propelled the Rebels to Atlanta.

“It means everything,” Murrell said. “Being hurt, and being able to go out there and still battle, affect winning with this team at a high level, it means everything. I praise God for allowing me to be able to continue to play without further damaging myself.”