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Off the cuff: Well, this Carolina team looks a lot different, so far at least, than last year's team. The Tar Heels shot 32 three points and fortunately hit 13 of them - a better percentage than their two-point shots.

The Heels made this a close game by missing easy shots and lots of them. Carolina took 80 shots, 19 more than Elon, and only hit 40 percent for the game.

Highly touted newcomer Drake Powell missed six of his eight shots but did hit a three for his first bucket as a Tar Heel in the first half to give UNC a 20-19 lead.

Fellow freshman Ian Jackson only hit two of his seven shots and transfer Cade Tyson, who is expected to be a three-point ace, managed just one of six shots, and it was a two-pointer.

Even leading scorer RJ Davis hit only seven of 19 shots. If not for the Tar Heels shooting 19 more shots, this could have been an upset.

Elon looks good and should do well in its conference but Carolina needs to be dominating teams like this.

Davis said he knows that Coach Davis is going to be showing the team a lot of film from this game. Hopefully something will click before the Heels play powerhouse Kansas on Friday.

Other observations are that Cadeau's three-point shot is better and that eight players got 17 minutes or more of action.

Carolina 90, Elon 76
Davis, Cadeau help Heels avoid scare

(Photo by UNC Sports Information)

Heavy underdog Elon erased a 16-point first-half deficit to take a two-point lead late but fifth-year senior RJ Davis and sophomore Elliot Cadeau led the Tar Heels on a 21-5 run to give North Carolina a 90-76 win in Chapel Hill. (11/4)

In the season opener, Davis tied the scored at 71 with a long floater and then drilled the three from the right corner to put Carolina up 74-71. The Heels never trailed again as Cadeau helped extended the lead with a three, a steal, a free throw and and a driving layup.

Davis scored 10 of his game-high 24 points in the last seven minutes of the game.

"He stepped up," UNC coach Hubert Davis said of Davis. "He's been in so many situations where he's been needed to step up."

Davis had started the game cold and ended seven of 19 from the floor but he sank all seven of his free throws and added seven assists and seven rebounds.

There were stretches where the Tar Heels played well and other stretches where they didn't and it started at the start. The Heels hit six of their first 10 shots but then missed nine of their next 10 shots as Elon took a 19-17 lead at the second TV timeout. The Heels got hot again during a 16-5 run that gave Carolina a 42-16 lead with five minutes left in the first half.

The Tar Heels led 51-39 at the break, with Seth Trimble scoring 12 of his 15 points and Jaylen Withers scoring all 10 of his points.

The lead held between eight and 12 points most of the second half until Elon went on a 14-2 run, led by a pair of threes from Nick Dorn, which gave the Phoenix a 71-69 lead with 6:48 to play.

That's when Davis, who was on the bench during the Elon outburst, and Cadeau took over. "It was good for us to see how we'd react," Coach Davis said. "I'm proud of how they responded. But we've got to work to get better."

Coach Davis said his team missed some layups and wasn't making the easy play. In addition, defensively, he wanted to hold Elon to under 40 percent shooting and the Phoenix hit 42 percent and he wanted to outrebound the opponent by 10 or more and the Heels only outrebounded the visitors by three.

Cadeau added, "Our shot selection wasn't the best and we didn't take care of the ball very well I learned that we're not as good as we should be."

Carolina, 1-0 with Kansas looming Friday night, got double figures from four starters - Davis, Cadeau, Trimble and Withers - and eight points from the fifth starter - Jalen Washington. TJ Simpkins came off the bench to lead Elon with 18 points.

Box score

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