A day after a dramatic win over Arkansas in the second round, Ole Miss couldn’t repeat the feat against top-seeded Auburn.
The Tigers suffocated the Rebels’ offense in the first half, and Ole Miss was eliminated from the SEC Tournament with a 62-57 loss in the quarterfinals. Sean Pedulla and Dre Davis tied for the team lead in points for Ole Miss with 12 each, while Johni Broome led the way for Auburn with 23 points and 15 rebounds. Ole Miss will now wait and see where it fits into the NCAA Tournament bracket on Sunday.
Ole Miss (22-11) jumped out to an 11-6 lead, but the Rebels struggled to score throughout the first half. Ole Miss scored just 11 points the rest of the period and had a stretch where it missed six straight from the floor and nine of 10.
The Rebels finished the first half 7 for 26 from the field and 3 for 15 behind the arc. They contained Auburn’s high-scoring offense, but they still trailed 29-22 at halftime after a first half where points came at a minimum.
Ole Miss also uncharacteristically struggled with turnovers on offense. The Rebels entered the day with the fewest turnovers per game in the SEC, but they coughed the ball up seven times in the first half alone.
The Rebels managed to trim the deficit to three coming out of halftime, but that was as close as they would get for a while. Auburn (28-4) struggled to put Ole Miss away, but the Tigers still kept Ole Miss at arm’s length.
That changed around the halfway mark of the second half. The two teams had been trading baskets, but Ole Miss finally snapped it by scoring seven unanswered points to tie the game at 46 with 6:56 left in the game. Ole Miss also took advantage of 11 Auburn turnovers in the second half that turned into 18 points.
However, that was as good as it would get for Ole Miss. Auburn responded with an 11-1 run to take a 57-47 lead with three minutes left. Ole Miss managed to whittle the deficit to three with 38 seconds left, but Broome put the game away with a basket to make it 62-57 with 11 seconds left in the game. The Tigers got one final stop after that and ran the clock out.
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