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CHAPEL HILL - The Rivers shot.

Roy Williams was ashen when he saw the ball go in.

He kneeled down, looked at the floor and then glanced at the wild celebration among the Duke players and coaches and managers.

Afterward, he struggled to explain the loss. Mike Krzyzewski struggled to explain the win.

"We fought like crazy just to stay close," he said. "Then we got hot at the end."

That explained it about as well as anything.

The hero, a 19-year-old kid playing in his first Duke-Carolina game, had no idea what had just happened.

"I can't explain it," he said.

Games like this change things, and an ending like this in the UNC-Duke series could have long-term effects.

The rivalry has gone back and forth, and the pendulum of power is moved by big games and championships.

This one felt like a postseason win.

For UNC's fans, it sank in hard like one of those postseason losses that weighed on the program all those years ago.

This was a huge loss for North Carolina.

Rivers' shot will be replayed for as long as the schools play basketball.

There's never been a bigger one in this series.

It could serve as a turning point for a season that had not gone all that well for the Devils.

They'd lost two home games. They'd lost some of their support from students.

The days leading up to the Carolina game were tense.

In one instant, everything changed.

Carolina, if not the rest of the country, has to deal with Duke now.

For all its struggles and despite its recent losses, Duke is now 20-4, tied for the lead in the ACC at 7-2 and coming off a win at North Carolina.

And it has a new superstar. Rivers will join the greats now, no matter how the season ends for the Blue Devils.

He'll almost certainly walk away to the NBA, a potential No. 1 pick with an entire basketball career ahead of him.

That career took to the national stage as time ran out Wednesday.

His shot was seen by every basketball scout in America, every potential Duke or Carolina recruit and every college basketball junkie in this basketball state.

"This was big for Durham, for North Carolina and for college basketball," Rivers said in the heady moments after the game.

No one doubts that.

Its influence will grow.

The rivalry that couldn't get any bigger is immeasurably bigger today.

The conference that seemed to be having a down year now has the seminal moment of an entire season. And it's only February.

These games get bigger over time.

In the days leading up to this one, stories were written about the great moments in past UNC-Duke games, stories of long-ago games and incidents and shots that rattle through history.

The Rivers shot will go in a thousand times through the years, and Tyler Zeller will never be able to stop it.

Duke's moment will eclipse all the moments that came before it in this series, especially the Jeff Capel shot that only prolonged a loss back in 1995.

The significance of the Duke win will become clearer as the season plays out.

The significance of the Carolina loss might be harder to gauge.

But no one who saw the shot will ever forget what it was like when it went in.

No shot in this long and storied series was ever bigger

And it could get even bigger in the years to come.