By STEVE REED AP Sports Writer

CHARLOTTE  — North Carolina guard Elliot Cadeau couldn’t hold back the tears as he walked off the floor at the Spectrum Center following a 90-84 loss to No. 7 Florida.

The Tar Heels again suffered through a lackluster first half against a big-time opponent, only to awaken in the second half and turn a 17-point deficit into the 4-point lead with four minutes to play. But UNC faltered down the stretch, the victim of poor defensive rebounding and untimely mistakes.

One of those belonged to Cadeau, who dribbled the ball off his leg and out of bounds under the Florida basket with 1:26 left and the score tied at 84. North Carolina wouldn’t score again, and its hard-fought journey back from 17 down ended with another perplexing loss, dropping the Tar Heels to 6-5.

It all hit Cadeau hard.

He walked to the UNC locker room with his jersey pulled up over his mouth and nose, the tears streaming down his cheeks. Teammate Ven-Allen Lubin walked alongside him, his long left arm draped around Cadeau’s shoulders, consoling the 6-foot-1 sophomore.

“I was just being really hard on myself,” Cadeau said later. “I feel like I made some plays toward the end that didn’t help the team.”

Coach Hubert Davis said he didn’t say anything to Cadeau after the game — a trait that he learned from legendary Tar Heels coach Dean Smith.

“There are so many emotions going on and I think it is really important to take a step back and just be able to think and let those emotions sink in, and then be able to communicate (later)” Davis said. “Coach Smith just never said anything after a game, win or lose. I rarely say anything after a game because I want to collect my thoughts as well.”

Davis said it doesn’t surprise him that Cadeau was emotional because he knows how badly he wants to win.

Cadeau has played enough basketball to experience the sport’s emotional swings — and knows he will get through it.

“There’s always ups and downs, especially in college basketball,” said Cadeau, who finished with 11 points, seven assists and four turnovers. “I just try to push through the losses and the bad moments. The next game I’m going to come out there and act like we won this game and have the same confidence level.”

Davis was more concerned with another slow start, something that has left him perplexed on how to fix.

The Tar Heels battled back to beat Dayton earlier this season after a slow start, but Davis called it “unsustainable” against tops teams.

The Tar Heels play No. 21 UCLA on Saturday.

During the first half UNC couldn’t make a shot, missing its first 11 3-pointers. The Tar Heels looked in slow motion at times. But in the second half they looked like a completely different team, starting on an 11-0 tear with super-aggressive defense that caused all sorts of problems for the unbeaten Gators (11-0), who hadn’t won a game by fewer than 10 points all season until Tuesday.

Turnovers turned into fastbreak points.

The energy level was turned up. UNC started to look like UNC. Now Davis now wants to see that from his team for a full 40 minutes.

“Once we figure it out, this team will be fun to watch,” Davis said.

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