Auburn men’s basketball starts the Southeastern Conference tournament against a team it recently dominated.

The Tigers face Ole Miss in the SEC tournament quarterfinals Friday afternoon, with tipoff set for noon as the first of four games on the day. The game will be televised on ESPN.

Auburn played Ole Miss twice in the regular season, winning both games. The most recent was dominant, 30-point win in Neville Arena on Feb. 26. The Tigers shot 59.6% from the field and 52.4% from 3-point range that night, both season highs.

The first matchup was closer, with Auburn beating Ole Miss 92-82 in Oxford on Feb. 1. Auburn shot 50% from 3 in that game, its second-highest percentage from long range behind the rematch with the Rebels.

How Ole Miss got here

After receiving a first-round bye, the Rebels have played just one game in the SEC tournament, beating Arkansas 83-80 on a game-winning 3-pointer by star guard Sean Pedulla.

After two missed free throws by Arkansas’ Trevon Brazile that would have given the Razorbacks a two-point lead, Ole Miss grabbed the rebound with six seconds left before Pedulla hit the game-winner with 1.3 left in the game.

It was Pedulla’s only 3-pointer in the game, finishing the contest with 10 points on 4-for-12 shooting. Pedulla, who is the Rebels leading scorer had a season-high 29 points in the first Ole Miss-Auburn matchup of the season.

Coming into the SEC tournament as the No. 8 seed, Ole Miss finished the regular season 21-10 and 10-8 in conference play. The Rebels were one of three 10-8 teams in the SEC but are the lowest seeded of those three.

Peter Rauterkus covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @peter_rauterkus or email him at prauterkus@al.com