'A Play Away': Sean Pedulla Gives Takeaways on Ole Miss Basketball's Loss to Auburn

Ole Miss Rebels point guard Sean Pedulla shared some of his thoughts following a tough loss to Auburn on Saturday afternoon.

Feb 1, 2025; Oxford, Mississippi, USA; Auburn Tigers forward/center Johni Broome (4) defends as Mississippi Rebels guard Sean Pedulla (3) in bounds the ball during the second half at The Sandy and John Black Pavilion at Ole Miss. Mandatory Credit: Petre Thomas-Imagn Images / Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

Auburn Tigers

92

Final

Ole Miss Rebels

82

The No. 23 Ole Miss Rebels suffered a hard-fought loss on Saturday afternoon in a tense matchup against the No. 1 Auburn Tigers where the visiting Tigers continued to roll, taking home a 92-82 win.

While the Rebels ultimately suffered a 10-point defeat, there were multiple times throughout the game and in some crucial spots where Ole Miss had a chance to either tie or take the lead. Senior guard Sean Pedulla spoke briefly about those moments postgame with the media.

"A couple different times I feel like we were a play away from tying the game," Pedulla said. "I think we had a free throw to tie it with like six or seven minutes left, and I could just feel like the energy in the building kind of waiting for that to happen and waiting for that to kind of explode.

"Our crowd was great, I thought, and we were just a couple of plays away at different times from making it a lot closer game at the end, if not shifting it towards our way."

Pedulla and the Rebels did not hold a lead at any point in Saturday's contest, and constantly playing behind eventually led to their downfall as Auburn fended off the surging Rebels multiple times throughout the game.

The Rebels also faced struggles from the line as Pedulla mentioned, sort of beating themselves at moments in the game where they could have changed momentum. Still, the Ole Miss guard believes that the Rebels can win games like they faced on Saturday with better discipline.

"My biggest takeaway is that we're good enough to play with just about anybody in the country," Pedulla said. "I think we knew that, but I think it's different when you go out and show it against the No. 1 team in the country. They're obviously really good and really talented and made us pay when we had lapses defensively.

"We can play with teams like this. It's kind of the same story all year. Just got to take a little bit extra discipline doing what we say we're going to do in practice and bringing that to the court and executing that at the end of the game to beat a team like that."

Pedulla and the Rebels return to the court on Tuesday as they host another nationally-ranked opponent in the Kentucky Wildcats at 6 p.m. CT where Ole Miss will be looking to bounce back after its tough weekend loss.

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