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Last night in the Spectrum Center, the Tar Heels fell to #7 Florida, in arguably the best game in the short history of the Jumpman Invitational, losing 90-84, in a game that drops the once preseason top 10 Tar Heels to 6-5 on the season, a week before Christmas. As has been the story most of the season, Carolina fell behind double-digits in the first half, for the sixth game this season, all against power conference competition. Florida built a 46-34 lead at the half, after shooting 53% from the field and connecting on seven three-pointers. As the Tar Heels have done plenty of times this season, they responded in the second half, starting the second 20-minute stanza on a 9-0 run, to make it a ballgame the rest of the way. The Heels now only got back in the game, they took a lead at the under-8 timeout, and as you can imagine, with a lot of UNC fans in the building, it felt like the Heels were on the verge of taking control of the game. At the 4-minute mark, Carolina had built an 81-77 lead, but that would be the end of the good times. Florida would outscore UNC 13-3 down the stretch, going 8-8 from the foul line, and grabbing 4 offensive rebounds.
RJ Davis entered the season with high expectations, after winning ACC Player of the Year last year, he was the Preseason Player of the Year for 2024-25. while being a consensus preseason All-American. And while he scored 29 points, and grabbed 8 rebounds, he missed the front-end of a one and one, with Carolina up two, but could’ve given UNC a two-possession lead. Then, when trailing 86-84, Hubert Davis drew up a great play out of a timeout and got Davis a clean look from behind the arc, but he wasn’t able to make the shot.
It wasn’t just Davis who struggled down the stretch, so did Elliot Cadeau, who also missed the front end of a one-and-one, and committed a costly turnover. After the game, Cadeau was seen crying going back to the locker room, as his frustrations from the Maui Invitational have officially carried over, and boiled over, on and off the court.
Carolina is now 6-5, after starting the season preseason ranked inside the top 10, and along with Arizona, they are one of the biggest disappointments in all of college basketball. It doesn’t get any easier for them as on Saturday they face nationally ranked UCLA in the annual CBS Sports Classic.