CHARLOTTE, NC – With just over four minutes left and his team trailing by four minutes, Florida coach Todd Golden huddled with his players on the floor of the NBA Coliseum, swarming with fans dressed mostly in sky blue, enjoying a wild comeback that had stunned the Gators in real time about 30 minutes earlier, nipping at their heels.

What now? With their backs against the wall and under duress, how would a team that had won all 10 games by double digits to start the season respond to a deficit?

Golden got his answer by looking his players in the eyes.

“I didn’t see any disappointment. Nobody pointed the finger,” he said. “I saw guys confident and ready to attack, defend, rebound and take care of the ball in the last four minutes.”

Less than two minutes later, the game was tied and the Gators were on their way to scoring the final eight points and grabbing the final six rebounds. When the horn sounded, four free throws followed from the sophomore forward Thomas Haugh and senior guard Will Richard In the final 7.9 seconds, seventh-seeded UF had handed basketball blueblood North Carolina a 90-84 loss in the Jumpman Classic, remaining undefeated so late in a season for just the second time in the program’s 118-year history.

Richard scored 22 points, including a trio of three-pointers, and grabbed six rebounds, none of which were bigger than the offense he converted into a free throw with less than a minute to play. Fifth year guard Aliyah Martinthe transfer from Florida Atlantic, had 19 points, including five of his team’s last 10, and none higher than his game-winning 3 with 2:26 left to go with six rebounds and four assists.

When it was over, the Gators (11-0) hit the floor en masse to celebrate their perfection on a night that saw them blow a 17-point first-half lead, give up 24 points off 17 turnovers and one Shot rate of 63 percent allowed in the second half and was anything but perfect.

So much for that streak of 10 consecutive double-digit wins and a whopping average winning margin of 21.5 points to start the season. Florida needed a test like this in a hostile atmosphere where everything seems to be against it. Escape with scoring leader Walter Clayton Jr. With just 12 points on 4 of 15 overall and 1 of 7 from deep – and still 90 points – it was further evidence of the team’s versatility and strength, with Haugh scoring nine points and six points off the bench and at the juniors provided co-reserves Denzel Aberdeen When he shot 5-for-6 from the floor, he had 12 points. Second-year forward Alex Condon had nine points and 10 rebounds.

“In an environment like that, you bring out the best in everyone,” said Martin, who also had a Clayton-like shooting day with five of 17 and 2 of 12, but had a really big, long day when it mattered most. “You see what leadership qualities you have and that gives you the confidence going into a part of the season where you have to get out of trouble.”

Surely Richard would agree with that idea, right?

“I’m not going to lie, I’d much rather win by a good margin,” he said. “But we know that the rest of the season won’t be easy. It will definitely prepare us for the (Southeastern Conference). It’s good to overcome a little adversity.”

Actually, more than a little. The Gators started red-hot, hitting 17 of their first 30 shots and seven of 14 from long range to take a 44-27 lead with just over two minutes left before the Tar Heels (6-5) scored seven of their last nine By halftime the deficit was a dozen points.

Golden told his players at halftime that Carolina, after shooting just 29.7 percent and going 2-for-16 from beyond the arc, wasn’t going down without a fight. He was right.

The Tar Heels suffocated the Gators in the first three minutes out of the locker room, scoring the first 11 points of the period – making it an 18-2 run that bridged the half – and pulling ahead 46-45, the local Fan base heated up before Haugh stopped the bleeding with a 3-pointer.

“I wasn’t happy with our performance after halftime,” he said. “This is really the first time this year that we have allowed a team to dictate the terms of the game, but believe them. I thought they were a lot more aggressive defensively, trying to get downhill and advance the ball.”

Were they ever? The Tar Heels made just three of 12 shots from beyond the arc in the second half – five of 28 in the game (17.9 percent) – but hit 19 of their first 22 shots from 2-point range to advance to the final, A hectic two minutes came when the game was decided.

There were six lead changes and four ties in the final nearly eight minutes, with Carolina snapping one of the former after a 3-point play from Clayton with a driving Davis layup followed by an alley-oop dunk in transition from Jalen Washingotn a nice pass from Cadeau (11 points, 7 assists) that brought the house down, giving the Heels an 81-77 lead with four minutes to play and forcing Golden to take a to take time out to sort things out.

As he learned in the huddle, his players were already happy.

“We haven’t had a game like that this year,” Golden said. “It was obviously great for us to get ahead in a game where we were behind and go back and forth in the second half.”

Especially how it ended in the final minutes. UF was trailing 82-79 when Martin, who was 1-for-10 from distance to that point, tied it, sinking a 3 to tie the game with 2:26 left.

“Unwavering faith, positive faith and dependence on the Lord,” Martin said of his mentality after missing nine of his first 10 endurance races. “Really it’s all about confidence. I work hard. Great players make great plays.”

He wasn’t finished yet either. Neither were the Gators. Another UNC layup, this time from Cadeau (his team’s fifth straight), put the Heels back in the lead at 84-82. As it turned out, those were Carolina’s last points.

Two Martin free throws tied the score at 84, and at UNC’s end, Martin knocked the ball off the driving Cadeau’s leg and out of bounds to force a turnover with 1:27 left. At that point, UF was running out of time and Martin positioned himself for a turn-around jumper that missed while Richard grabbed the rebound underneath and slotted the ball in for an 86-84 lead with 56 seconds left. Time out, Carolina.

Fifteen seconds into the Heels’ next possession, Davis was wide open and preparing for a great three-pointer, but the ball flew away on his eighth miss in 11 attempts and ended up in Martin’s hands with 47 seconds left. The Gators had a long possession and had to settle for a late-period Martin 3 that missed, but this time it was Haugh who scored the offensive rebound, the foul and two free throws for a 7.9 lead with 7.9 left .

“I had missed two before, so I thought about it a little bit,” Haugh said. “But I improved and did well.”

What did Martin say about “big” players and “big” plays?

Aberdeen mistakenly fouled Cateau and got the ball into the UNC halfcourt with 6.2 seconds to play, but Cateau missed the front end of a one-and-one, Richard rebounded, dropped his two free throws with 3.8 seconds to play and Florida had North Carolina narrowly defeated for the third time, handing the Heels their first loss in the three Jumpman events.

Perhaps more importantly, the Gators now have a reference point to fall back on when those inevitable adversities arise – has anyone checked the SEC lately? – beats them across the board. And it will be.

There will be more groups like the treacherous one Golden investigated on Tuesday.

“Honestly, it was as much about how I felt as they felt. I had to calm down a little bit because I was a little confused and a little disappointed with some of the things we were doing,” Golden said. “But our boys answered the bell.”

Email senior author Chris Harry at [email protected]