UNC basketball player after another loss: ‘We Feel Hungry Now’

The unranked Michigan State Spartans (5-2, 0-0 Big Ten) were without a double-digit scorer, Jase Richardson (head), for their Maui Invitational final against the now reeling UNC basketball team in the event’s third seed Wednesday night. Still, as has been consistently the case this season, Hubert Davis’ fourth batch of Tar Heels, currently No. 12 in the AP Top 25, but sure to experience a significant drop, violently in the first half.

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After trailing by as many as 14 points late in the first half, marking the team’s third double-digit first-half deficit in as many outings in Maui, UNC clawed back a bit to make it 43-34 at halftime. And a better version of the Tar Heels emerged in the second half, ultimately forcing overtime before falling to the Spartans, 94-91.

Afterward, UNC basketball sophomore point guard and full-time starter Elliot Cadeau touched on the Tar Heels’ woes, pointing to a newfound sense of hunger stemming from the back-to-back losses as they ended their disappointing 2-2 stretch at Hawaii:

“I feel like we feel hungry now. We know nothing is going to be handed to us and we just learned a lot from that. I think the biggest thing we learned from that was that our toughness just needs to be better, just like we need to be tougher.

“And I feel like we’re going to start putting that into practice every day. We have to. We have no choice.”

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