The Chronicle

Issue date: 12/10/07 Section: News
Last update: 12/21/07 at 1:51 PM EST

With the game tied 58-58 and 25 seconds left in the second half, Mike Cook missed an open 3-pointer from the left corner and Duke sophomore Jon Scheyer corralled the rebound, giving his team a chance to take the half's last shot. Coming out of a timeout, Krzyzewski called for an exchange between Duke's leading scorers Kyle Singler and Gerald Henderson, both of whom finished with 17 points. Henderson, who had tied the game at 58 with a turnaround-fadeaway jumper from the corner with 59 ticks left, took the ball from Singler in the corner and drove to the hoop, where he freed himself just long enough to hoist a four-footer that rimmed to the left. Singler collected the miss and found himself open for an uncontested putback as time expired, but the attempt hit the side of the rim, and overtime beckoned.

"If Coach wants the ball in your hands, it's for a reason," said Henderson, who scored nine after halftime. "You have to love being in those positions. But if you don't take it, you can't make it. You just put yourself in that position and try to make the best of it."

Duke had another opportunity to make the best of its situation in overtime, when senior DeMarcus Nelson promptly drove, was fouled and made one of two free throws for the early one-point advantage in the extra period. But the Panthers, who went on a 17-5 run in the second half to slice Duke's once-formidable margin, scored four of the game's next five points before Nelson shocked the crowd with maybe the best play of the ripe season. The captain beat his defender on the left, elevated, took the foul, jumped up-and-under the basket, hung and put enough backspin on the basketball to drop it into the basket. He accomplished the old-fashioned three-point play by converting the free throw to give the Blue Devils a one-point lead, which doubled when Singler made the second of two free throws with 23 seconds left.

Pittsburgh head coach Jamie Dixon called timeout and setup the eventual game-winning play.

Continued...

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