Immediately after North Carolina’s 91-87 win over Duke in an empty Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night, senior forward Garrison Brooks put his arm around Caleb Love and said a few words to the freshman guard as they both smiled and walked towards the tunnel and to the locker room.

Love had just finished off his best performance in a Carolina uniform, scoring a season-high 25 points while handing out seven assists in his Tobacco Road rivalry debut. Brooks also had a solid performance, pitching in 12 points, grabbing six boards and dishing out four assists in what was his fourth and final game in Cameron.

Cameron Crazies and a frenzied atmosphere or not, Love’s and Brooks' embrace followed by the Tar Heels' on-court celebration showed how much the win meant to them.

“It’s still the best rivalry in America,” Brooks said afterward, noting a full house or not, the game is still the game. “I think it’s still a very big game. I think it meant a lot to us because we needed to win, they needed to win. I think it was a very intense game. Just a really big game for us.”

Even junior guard Leaky Black, who finished with 12 points and four boards on an impressive 4-for-4 shooting night, had a hard time putting what the win felt like into words.

“I can't even explain it…” Black said. “Fans or no fans, we beat Duke, so it definitely feels good.”

It is even sweeter for this program when considering what happened last season against the Blue Devils, especially in Chapel Hill.

The Heels saw a 13-point lead in the final four minutes of game at the Smith Center last February evaporate as a Tre Jones jumper forced overtime before a Wendell Moore put-back from a Jones airball gave Duke the victory in front of a stunned Caroline blue crowd.

Nearly a month after that heartbreaking defeat, the Heels lost by 13 in Durham, which capped off UNC’s worst ever regular season finish in the Roy Williams era.

These disappointing moments lingered in the heads of players like Black, Brooks and sophomore forward Armando Bacot, making the win that much more rewarding when it eventually came on Saturday night.

“I’m glad we beat Duke,” Bacot said. “It was a fun game. We knew it was gonna be close regardless. Every year, even look back at last year, we obviously weren't that good, but it's always gonna be close. That's the rivalry.”

Not to mention the freshmen enjoyed it, too.

“It was a big one…” Love said. “Coming in, we knew we had to bring our own energy with no fans, but it felt like fans because of just how hard we were playing and how into the game we were.”

Crowd or no crowd, Carolina's win over Duke in the 253rd edition of the rivalry felt as good as ever to the 2021 Tar Heels.