North Carolina’s Eliot Cadeau scored six points in the last 21 seconds including the rare four-point play with less than five seconds left to give the Tar Heels a hard-fought 74-73 win at Notre Dame. (12/29)

The Tar Heels controlled much of the game until Notre Dame erased an 11-point deficit with a 12-0 second half rally, fueled by Markus Burton’s 10 points. Burton had missed seven games with a knee injury before nearly leading the Irish to a win.

But Carolina kept it close the rest of the way as there were four ties and nine lead changes before Cadeau made the 10th lead change of the second half the most important.

Down 73-70 with 14 seconds left, the Tar Heels quickly attacked with Cadeau swishing a three from the right wing and picking up the foul. Cadeau, who had converted only three of his last 22 three-point shots, sank the go-ahead free throw with 4.8 seconds left.

Notre Dame, following a Carolina timeout, put the ball in Burton’s hands but Cadeau stayed in front of him and Burton missed a short shot from the right side to end the game.

While Cadeau was the end-of-game hero, the scoring star was Ian Jackson, who scored a freshman-high 27 points. Cadeau finished with 10 points to be the only other Tar Heel in double figures.

“He’s gifted,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said praising Jackson as an athletic shot maker. “We needed every bit of it.”

The Tar Heels shot well from two-point range but was only six of 21 from three for a total 53 shooting percentage. Carolina outscored Notre Dame 16-10 off turnovers.

Carolina did not have what has become the normal slow start as the Tar Heels got out to a 26-14 lead midway through the first half. UNC led 39-32 at the half and worked the margin to 11 after RJ Davis sent an alley-oop pass to Jackson.

That’s when Notre Dame’s 12-0 run changed the game around to set up the barnburner at the end.

“We played really well for most of the game and then we were getting beat one on one and that was causing us problems,” UNC coach Hubert Davis said. “We’ve got to become a team… We needed this one for our confidence. We were a team out there today.”

Burton, who went nine of 10 from the line, led the Irish with 23 points off the bench as Notre Dame falls to 7-7 overall and 1-2 in the ACC.

The Tar Heels improve to 9-6 overall and 2-1 in the conference.

Boxscore

Yes, North Carolina had an expected comfortable win over Campbell and, yes, RJ Davis broke out of a shooting slump but the Tar Heels couldn’t hold a 29-point lead over the last seven minutes of the game and settled for a 97-81 home victory over the Camels. (12/29)

The rust showed in the first half for the Tar Heels, who were also playing without Seth Trimble, who got injured in practice this week.

Davis, who passed Marcus Paige for most three pointers in UNC history, hit a three to put Carolina up 12-9 and the Tar Heels never trailed again. But the lead fluctuately around the four to eight-point range until Jalen Washington scored inside at the halftime buzzer to give the Heels at 11-point lead at 40-29.

As the Tar Heels have done all year, they put the foot to the floorboard in the second half getting the lead up to 19 in the first five minutes of the second half. Eliot Cadeau, who had a career-high 12 assists, scored or assisted on the first five Carolina baskets of the second half.

Carolina extended the lead to 29 after Davis made another three after a nifty cross-over dribble and Ian Jackson sank a pair of free throws which made it 78-49 with 6:53 to go.

That’s when things got NBA like as the Tar Heels coasted while the Camels outscored them 32-19 over the last 6:30 of the game.

UNC coach Hubert Davis, as he does often, said that the team will go as far as the defense and rebounding takes them, and that his squad made some defensive mistakes at both the beginning of the game and the end of the game.

Most of Campbell’s damage came from beyond the arc with the Camels hitting 10 of 25 with Colby Duggan getting five of them. It was the game of a lifetime for Duggan, who finished with 32 points which is twice his previous career high point total.

The Tar Heels, who put five in double figures, didn’t have as much trouble scoring as it did keeping the Camels from scoring.

Carolina, led by freshman Jackson’s season-best 26 points, shot the ball well at 57 percent from the floor and 36 percent from three. Davis had perhaps his best shooting performance of the year, finishing with 23 points while hitting five of 10 threes. “He’s starting to get his rhythm,” Coach Davis said. Cadeau and Drake Powell each finished with 12 points while Washington added 10.

The Tar Heels improve to 8-5 while the Camels fall to 5-8. Carolina travels to Louisville for a conference game on Jan. 1 at 6 p.m.

Box score

For the North Carolina Tar Heels and head coach Bill Belichick, they lost a big part of their future. Just one day after falling to UConn 27-14 in the Fenway Bowl, redshirt freshman linebacker Caleb LaVallee has entered his name in the transfer portal. Pleae click here for more.

Michael Merdinger was UNC’s third-string signal-caller for most of the 2024 regular season under then-head coach Mack Brown. He wasn’t on the field for any snaps and now has four years of eligibility remaining wherever he ends up next. Please click here for more.