Published on January 4th, 2025 by Inside Carolina
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — In a matter of milliseconds, with the Tar Heels trailing Notre Dame by three points at the Joyce Center, Elliot Cadeau broke down in his mind what the Fighting Irish’s defensive strategy could be.
Once he caught the ball with eight seconds left in the second half, he figured the Notre Dame defense would send the house to RJ Davis — North Carolina’s career leader in 3-point field goals and second all-time leading scorer. If not, they’d surely look to take away Ian Jackson, who scored a game-high 27 points and entered the game shooting 41.5% from three.
Cadeau’s logic checked out. Notre Dame blanketed Davis as he tried to use a pin-down screen to get open, and the Fighting Irish took away Jackson’s path to an open shot, so Jackson kicked it to Cadeau on the right wing. The second-year guard noticed a favorable switch with Notre Dame’s Matt Allocco in front of him. After two dribbles and a hard stop, Cadeau — who entered the game shooting 23.7% percent from outside — rose up for a game-tying shot.
“We needed three points, and I felt like that was the best open look we could have got,” Cadeau said.
To the bewilderment of some and the delight of others, Cadeau’s shot sank right down the middle to even the score at 73. And to North Carolina’s benefit, he drew the foul on Allocco, though the whistle was so faint with the UNC section of the crowd screaming over it that even those on the sidelines could hardly hear it.
“I didn’t know it was an and-1,” Hubert Davis said. “I was hoping that it went in, but I was prepared to call a timeout to set up our defense, and they said, ‘Don’t call timeout.’ And I said, ‘I’m calling a timeout to set up our defense.’ And they said, ‘He’s going to the free throw line.’ And I said, ‘Who’s going to the free throw line?’ And they said Elliot.
“And so I told them, after Elliot made his free throw, we were calling timeout to set up our defense. And we were able to get a stop at the end.”
Before his clutch sequence, Cadeau had six points on the night. But after his heroic play, capped off by a made free throw and a defensive stop on Markus Burton to seal the deal, he ended the night with 10 points and six assists with just one turnover in UNC’s 74-73 win against the Fighting Irish, bringing the team’s record to 9-6.
On UNC’s penultimate possession, prior to the game-winning four-point play, Cadeau drove right and finished over Burton to cut Notre Dame’s lead to one point. UNC sent Allocco to the free throw line to extend the game, and Allocco made both foul shots to extend the lead to three points. Davis elected not to call timeout after the free throws went down.
“At the end of each practice, we have late-game situations,” Davis said. “So it could be different, three minutes on the clock, up, six or down eight. One minute on the clock, free throw line, we’re down one. Just different situations to put them so that when it’s a real game, we can talk about and we did. We said, ‘guys, we’ve been in this situation before. This is something that we’ve practiced and practiced.’”
Cadeau’s shot inspired some deja vu in South Bend. North Carolina faced Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in the second game of the season, and like Saturday’s game, the Tar Heels trailed by three in the final seconds. Cadeau took a pass from Jalen Washington after a missed free throw by Hunter Dickinson. Similar to Saturday, North Carolina did not call a timeout after the free throw. Cadeau gave the ball up briefly before getting it back and attempting a stepback three over Dickinson, but that night, the shot bounced off the side of the rim.
Cadeau said he heard and read an abundance of criticism for taking and missing the shot. He even harkened back to that moment in his postgame interview on Saturday. But a frustrating end to that November game made the postgame scene in the UNC locker room all the more gratifying.
“It was, like, everybody,” Cadeau said about which teammates had the most to say about his game-winner. “They were throwing water on me. I told them, ‘You don’t have to do that.’ I didn’t really want to be drowned. They were all really happy for me. They were just happy for me and telling me that was get-back from Kansas.”
RJ Davis was the first player to hype up Cadeau after his late 3-pointer went down, giving him a firm chest bump. As the team went to the bench before the free throw attempt, he wrapped his right arm around Cadeau to continue showing him love. Cadeau went two games without making a 3-pointer, but he knocked down two on Saturday including his contested game-winner.
Cadeau has experienced his share of highs and lows during his sophomore season, as have the Tar Heels as a whole, but his heroics on Saturday gave him a morale-lifting play to build on.
“All the defense was pulled in on the opposite side, which allowed Elliot to have a one-on-one opportunity,” Davis said. “And he had the confidence to knock it down, hit a stepback three and finish with the four-point play with the free throw. Super happy for him.”
Added Jackson: “It was great to see my teammate, who people say isn’t shooting the best, go out there and have the balls to knock it down.”
Jeremiah Holloway 