MILWAUKEE (WNCN) — After being down 44-26 at the half, No. 11 North Carolina staged a second-half comeback against No. 6 Ole Miss in their NCAA Tournament first round matchup Friday.
But it wasn’t enough, as the Rebels (22-11) pulled off a 71-64 win over the Tar Heels (23-14) in a South Region game at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee.
RJ Davis scored 15 to lead UNC in his final game in Carolina blue.
Sean Pedulla, who made a critical 3-pointer with 52.8 seconds left, led Ole Miss with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Davis’ veteran leadership and experience showed at the end as he tried to help the Tar Heels complete the comeback. With 1:09 remaining, he drove to the basket, drew a foul and converted a three-point play to cut Ole Miss’ lead to 66-64. Pedulla responded by sinking Ole Miss’ only successful 3-pointer in seven second-half attempts from beyond the arc.
After North Carolina’s Drake Powell missed a 3 with 43 seconds left, Ole Miss went 4 of 5 on free-throw attempts the rest of the way.
Ole Miss never trailed and seemed on the way to a blowout win for much of the day.
North Carolina trailed 50-30 with just over 16 minutes left when starting forward Jae’lyn Withers was helped off the floor after hurting his right leg on a drive to the basket. Ole Miss still led by 15 with 8:55 remaining.
Then the Tar Heels went on a tear.
A one-handed dunk by Jalen Washington capped an 11-0 spurt that cut Ole Miss’ lead to 63-59 with 5:07 remaining. RJ Davis eventually made it a one-possession game before Pedulla hit his big shot.
The Tar Heels end their season winning nine of their last 12 games, with two of those losses coming to rival Duke in a six-day span.
The Rebels move on to play Iowa State Sunday in the second round of the tournament.