CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Charlotte loves its Tar Heels.

But No. 7 Florida came to spoil the party.

North Carolina, the home team in the first game of the third-annual Jumpman Invitational, muscled back from a 17-point first-half deficit only to fall just short to the visiting Florida Gators, 90-84 — the team’s 9-0 run to start the second half and the boisterously blue crowd not quite enough to deliver the Tar Heels’ their first big non-conference win of the season.

The Tar Heels are now 2-1 in this event. They defeated a then-Top 10 Oklahoma team in 2023, which preceded an ACC regular season title. And they defeated Michigan in 2022.

The second half, once North Carolina finally climbed out of its Tuesday night malaise, was about as back and forth as they come. There were three lead changes and five ties in the final eight minutes — every bucket bordering on heroism. A stepback RJ Davis 3 here, a Walter Clayton Jr. and-one there, a Florida offensive rebound-turned-bucket here, a North Carolina steal at halfcourt-turned-trip to the free-throw line there.

The Tar Heels’ first lead of the game came with 7:51 left. It arrived thanks to Seth Trimble knocking the ball loose at halfcourt, muscling his way through two defenders and finishing through them on a layup in which he was fouled. And-one. Trimble, upon watching the ball fall in after it hung on the rim for minutes, screamed into the Spectrum Center canopy. The game had officially become North Carolina’s to lose.

There were many other moments that made Tuesday a standing-in-lower-bowl-only spectacle. There was Florida’s start at 6 of 10 from 3 (contrasting to UNC’s 0-of-10 start). There was Elliott Cadeau’s high-floating alley oop to Jalen Washington to give the Tar Heels an 81-77. There was Alijah Martin’s huge 3 with 2:13 left to tie it at 82.

The biggest ended up being Florida’s bucket to make it 86-84 with 54 seconds to go, courtesy of Will Richard’s go-ahead layup after the Gators collected two offensive boards. (That put Florida ahead in the offensive board category 15 to the Tar Heels’ five at the time.)

The ensuing possession, North Carolina drew up a sideline out-of-bounds play that led to an open Davis 3-pointer, but it wouldn’t go down. Florida then went down, missed a shot, collected an offensive board, made two free throws and that was it.

The win keeps Florida at a perfect 11-0. The loss drops North Carolina to 6-5 and still without a key non-conference win. Their only non-conference wins are Elon, American, Hawai’i, Dayton and La Salle — they lost all their contests against Kansas, Florida, Alabama, Michigan State and Auburn.

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