UNC falls silent in final minute against Ole Miss, exits NCAA tournament first round

MILWAUKEE — A distant marching band pulsed through the quiet locker room. The silence was disturbed only by the sound of backpacks zipping and lockers shutting. Most players were emotionless. Maybe they expected this conclusion.

Junior guard Seth Trimble didn't blend into the quiet. Tears welled up. He broke the silence some more. 

"If there had to be one end to the season," Trimble said, "That'd be it." 

The guard recognized the inevitability. UNC was stuck in a movie that wouldn't stop replaying. It was a chapter the Tar Heels repeated over and over again. Still, the ending didn't hurt any less. 

The No. 11 seed UNC men's basketball team fell, 71-64, to No. 6 seed Ole Miss in Fiserv Forum on Friday evening. After earning their worst seed in program history, the Tar Heels lost in the round of 64 for the third time ever. North Carolina suffered an 18-point deficit going into halftime — its largest halftime deficit in a NCAA tournament game since 1967. UNC also recorded its worst 3-point shooting performance in the Big Dance since 2018 after going 5-for-24.

Ole Miss led in almost every statistical category in the first half. The Rebels made seven threes and shot over 50 percent from the field in the first half. Despite having the worst rebounding margin in the NCAA tournament, the Rebels out-rebounded UNC 21-12.

North Carolina couldn't find an offensive rhythm in the first 20, finishing with a 27.3 percentage from behind the arc. On Tuesday against SDSU, the Tar Heels set a new program record after making 14 triples. That performance was long gone. 

"We were really lifeless in the first half," Trimble said. "We had no passion. We had no joy. We looked like the group we were a few months ago."

They looked like the same group that played the sixth hardest non-conference schedule in the country but had almost nothing to show for it. They became the same squad that faced often double-digit deficits in the first half. They were the team that saw 11 one-possession games, but also found themselves on the wrong side of it when it mattered most. 

Head coach Hubert Davis gave a quick speech at halftime, one that limited UNC's choices in the final 20 minutes. 

"There was only two choices coming out in the second half," Davis said. "Either to respond with that same type of fight or get embarrassed."

First-year guard Drake Powell said Davis emphasized the team was playing on the biggest stage in college basketball on national television. If anything should motivate them to change the outcome, it should be March Madness. 

So, the Tar Heels began to chip away at the deficit. What started as a 22-point climb narrowed to 15. They persisted in the absence of graduate forward Jae'Lyn Withers — who rolled his ankle with 16 minutes left — and without junior forward Ven-Allen Lubin who picked up four fouls. 

Junior forward Jalen Washington hit a jumper, propelling an 11-0 run with under nine minutes remaining. Sophomore guard Elliot Cadeau drained a three, graduate guard RJ Davis made a layup and Washington capped it off with a one-handed slam. 

Somehow, the Tar Heels made it a two-possession game. 

"It felt like we could really come back and take the game over and win," Washington said.

Lubin came back into the game. Powell found the forward inside for an easy layup. One minute later, RJ Davis drove to the basket. He found the rim despite being fouled. The whistle blew. And-1. Ole Miss led by two with a minute left. 

Then, North Carolina fell silent. Mississippi's Sean Pedulla made a three with 52 seconds left. Almost 20 seconds later, he made two free throws to extend Ole Miss' lead to six.

The Tar Heels took six shots in the last minute. They missed every single one. 

It's the team's Achilles' heel. They couldn't finish when it mattered most this season, so of course, it doomed them in the end. 

So, the silence came.

RJ Davis dreaded the moment he would have to take his jersey off for the last time and the hurt he would feel. Powell was emotionless. Lubin thought about the foul trouble that plagued him. And Trimble hoped for some miracle that could take him back to fix this game or solve this season. 

"If I could go back to two hours ago and try to do this game over again, I would," Trimble said. "But that's not how life works."

@_emmahmoon

@dthsports | sports@dailytarheel.com

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