Hubert Davis believes being in tight game vs. Elon was a 'perfect' situation to be in

North Carolina kicked off the 2024-2025 basketball season on Wednesday with a 90-76 win over Elon inside of the Smith Center. A victory that may look like a dominant 14-point win, but was actually a close matchup during the second half.

The Phoenix went on an impressive 14-0 run to take a 71-69 lead with six minutes remaining in the ball game. A moment where head coach Hubert Davis and his team had to show some resilience early in the season, giving themselves a lot to learn from.

“Well, I think there’s a lot to learn from the entire game,” Davis said after the matchup. “I think it’s an opportunity to grow and get better in a number of different areas on both ends of the floor. So it’s the first game of the season and there are things that I was really proud of, that I thought the team did really well and did at a high level.”

The Tar Heels shot the ball well on Wednesday night making 40% of their shots from the field and an impressive 40.6% of their shots from behind the three-point line. With four of their five starters scoring in double figures to open up the season.

But for as good as North Carolina shot the ball, Elon did so a little bit better. With defense serving as one of the several areas where Davis’ squad has some room to grow following one game ahead of a long season.

“There’s things that we’ve got to improve on and we feel very fortunate and to be able to pull away. I think Elon was up 73-71 and we talked about it in the huddle, how are you going to react? How you’re going to respond?” Davis asked his team. “And that this is actually the perfect game and a perfect situation to be in because this will help us grow.”

“This will help us get to be the team that we want to become, and so from that standpoint, there is a lot to learn from it and it’s nice to learn from it from a victory.”

It’s common for the nation’s top teams to not be pushed in their first game of the season, but the Tar Heels are now a little bit battle-tested early in the year ahead of their marquee matchup against top-ranked Kansas this Friday.