The North Carolina Tar Heels really needed to find a way to get a victory after dropping their last game at Louisville. With a 1-1 conference record, UNC faced a Notre Dame team that has struggled. But as UNC found out, road games in the ACC are never easy.
North Carolina needed a four-point play from guard Elliot Cadeau with just six seconds left to get past Notre Dame 74-73 in dramatic fashion.
With UNC trailing by three, their final play saw Cadeau having to take a shot similar to the one he took against Kansas early in the year. He was hit as he came down, draining the three and going to the line for a free throw. He sank that free throw to give UNC the lead and the Tar Heels held off a last-second shot from Markus Burton to get the win.
That led to an exhale from UNC players, staff and fans,
The first half was a back-and-forth affair between the two teams as UNC took a 39-32 lead into the break. Backed by the strong play of Ian Jackson, who set a career-high with 27 points, the Tar Heels extended their lead to 12 points at one time before Notre Dame rallied back.
The Fighting Irish took the lead with under 10 minutes to go with Burton, Tae Davis and Braeden Shrewsberry leading the way. The trio combined to score 56 points with Burton leading the way with 23.
Clutch 😤 @ElliotCadeau pic.twitter.com/248gWEKbwy
— Carolina Basketball (@UNC_Basketball) January 4, 2025
Notre Dame led by three twice in the final 20 seconds and had the ball up 71-68 with 25 seconds left before Burton turned it over. A quick Elliot Cadeau layup got UNC to within one before Matt Allocco hit two free throws with 14 seconds left.
But Cadeau, a guard who has missed 19 of his last 25 threes, made the magic happen. Cadeau was the only other Tar Heel in double figures, scoring 10 points in the game and dishing out six assists.
North Carolina will head back home to the Dean Smith Center on Tuesday, January 7th, for its next ACC matchup against one of the newest teams to the conference, SMU, at 9:00 p.m. ET, airing on ACC Network.
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