OXFORD – Growing up in Edmond, Oklahoma, Ole Miss senior guard Sean Pedulla envisioned himself in moments like the one he found himself in Saturday. With the chips down, his hands on the ball late and his team trailing, Pedulla had confidence he was going to make the play that needed to be made.
As fate would have it, Pedulla’s belief paid off in as big a situation as he could have imagined. The fact it came against the team he grew up rooting for – and did not offer him out of high school – was icing on the cake.
Pedulla scored a game-high 26 points against Oklahoma Saturday afternoon – including the go-ahead 3-pointer with 19 seconds remaining – and Ole Miss snapped its three-game losing streak with an 87-84 win over the Sooners at SJB Pavilion.
The Rebels (20-9, 9-7 SEC) have won 20 games for the second straight season, the first such instance since Ole Miss did it three straight seasons in 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.
Saturday’s game featured four lead changes in the final three minutes.
“(I’m) pretty comfortable. … It was like those situations when you’re a kid in the driveway and you’re counting down in your head, ‘three, two,’” Pedulla said. “So that’s kind of a situation like – kind of a ballsy shot, because if you miss it kind of gives them the opportunity to make it a two-possession game. But it’s March. You have to hit some big shots. So, just took the shot confidently.”
After Pedulla tied the game at 80 with free throws with two minutes remaining, Oklahoma’s Dayton Forsythe put the Sooners ahead with free throws of his own. Senior forward Jaemyn Brakefield tied the game back up with a layup but missed a free throw on the and-one attempt. Duke Miles’ acrobatic layup with 31 seconds to play put the Sooners (17-12, 4-12) back in front briefly before Pedulla hit his game-winning shot.
Forsythe missed his subsequent attempt, and senior guard Matthew Murrell sealed the Rebels’ win with a pair of free throws. Five Ole Miss players finished in double-figure scoring.
“We’re trying to play our best basketball going into March, and coming off the last two games, we felt like we underperformed big time. So, we needed to get back in the win column,” Pedulla said. “So, I’d say coming out with a W was the most important thing today. But at the same time, it’s basketball and we were all just trying to have fun.”
Both teams were scoreless the first two-and-a-half minutes of the game – with the Sooners committing four turnovers – before senior guard Dre Davis hit a 3-pointer. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Pedulla gave the Rebels a seven-point lead with just over 11 minutes left in the half, and Ole Miss led by as many 11 in the first. But despite committing nine first-half turnovers, Oklahoma took a 38-37 lead on a 3-pointer from Duke Miles with 1:15 to play. A late layup from Ole Miss senior guard Davon Barnes gave the Rebels a one-point halftime lead.
Pedulla led the Rebels with 10 first-half points.
Ole Miss extended its lead to five early in the second but once again fell behind on a pair of Forsythe free throws. An 8-2 Ole Miss run gave the Rebels back the lead and helped eventually open up a nine-point advantage with 8:18 to play, accentuated by a diving attempt at a loose ball by Pedulla that was recovered by Murrell and given back to Pedulla, who then hit a 3-pointer.
A barrage of 3-pointers from Forsythe kept the Sooners close, though, and Oklahoma trailed by just one with 3:32 to play. Back-to-back layups by Miles gave Oklahoma a pair of one-point leads, and free throws from Pedulla tied the game at 80 with two minutes remaining.
Brakefield missed consecutive free throws with a chance to put Ole Miss back in front, and Forsythe hit both of his with 1:12 to put Oklahoma ahead 82-80. Brakefield, who finished with 16 points, then tied the game with a layup through contact before Miles put the Sooners ahead with his dazzling play at the rim.
And then Pedulla made the shot.
“You could almost predict it,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “I was confident and just really impressed with Sean. … He went and wrote his story at Virginia Tech and then, obviously, (Oklahoma coach) Porter Moser knows he’s a player and all that. So, you get into that storyline, maybe a more immature player would kind of take it like, ‘I have to put my Superman cape on today.’ And that wasn’t Sean’s approach.
“ … But tonight, because of the game and because neither team could really establish themself defensively … I thought Sean had the courage in big moments to take those shots and make those shots.”
Ole Miss hosts No. 5 Tennessee Wednesday at 8 p.m., which will also be the Rebels’ senior night. The game will be broadcast on ESPN2.
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