CHAPEL HILL - North Carolina’s 76-65 season-opening win over Notre Dame in the Smith Center on Wednesday night felt more like a game in late February than one just six days after Halloween.

Beginning the season against an ACC foe is something UNC hasn’t done since former head coach Dean Smith’s sixth season in Chapel Hill some 53 years ago. It’s a rarity and, and because of that, some players felt more pressure to perform in front of a packed and noisy crowd of 21,750.

“It was kind of nerve-wracking at first,” sophomore guard Leaky Black said. “But, once we settled down and started playing our game, we were good.”

Not only were some of the younger players feeling the pressure of the event-like occasion, so was their most experienced upperclassman. Junior forward Garrison Brooks, who’s played more minutes as a Tar Heel in his career than anybody on the team, also felt the weight of opening up the year against a vastly more experienced Fighting Irish team.

“It was a lot of stress getting into it,” Brooks said. “It was a really big game for us.”

Those early nerves were evident, too, as Notre Dame ended the first half on a 19-11 run over the final 7:52 to take a 31-30 lead into the halftime break.

While the first 20 minutes of play left a lot to be desired, the Tar Heels flipped the switch in the second half after receiving a stern message from head coach Roy Williams in the locker room.

“We’ve got to be tougher, we’ve got to dig. We had moments in the first half where we’d be up and then we’d give in a little bit and that's what typically happens,” Brooks said. “You give in a little bit, they take the lead and most of the time they take over the game.”

Freshman guard Cole Anthony’s 34-point, 11-rebound performance helped turn things around in the second half as UNC went on to outscore Notre Dame 46-34 and eventually win the game by double-digits.

Anthony, who was playing in his first collegiate game alongside fellow freshman forward Armando Bacot, didn’t look at all fazed by the moment. Bacot on the other hand, who finished with seven points and eight rebounds in 22 minutes of play, was taken by the atmosphere, even though hed experienced it a lot from the stands as a commit last year.

“When the starting lineups came out, it was just crazy to be in that position,” he said. “To be able to do that is just crazy.”

The Tar Heels’ season-opening win was a more difficult task than it has been in previous years, but they got it done, and that’s all that matters in ACC play.