The scoreboard at the end of Saturday afternoon's game read "WAKE FOREST: 62, DUKE: 61." What it should have said was "Randolph Childress: 5, Duke: 0."
It was the fifth time in a row that Childress led his Demon Deacons to a win over Duke. Wake Forest has won seven of the last 10 meetings between the two schools.
Also, for the second time in two years, Childress nailed a jump shot to win the game for the Demon Deacons in Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Last season, it was a Childress three-pointer over Grant Hill that handed Duke its first loss of the season. This time, Childress floated a 10-footer over senior Kenny Blakeney with six seconds left to give No. 11 Wake a one-point lead.
"I knew what [Childress] was going to do and I knew he was going to take the last shot," Blakeney said. "His coaches and teammates want him to take the big shot."
Ironically, acting head coach Pete Gaudet had watched tape from the Feb. 8 Wake-Florida State game, when Childress missed a game-winning opportunity, so he was prepared for the situation.
"We wanted to dig in and give Childress a lot of hand pressure," Gaudet said. "We didn't hold as well as Florida State held that position last week, and that's a shot he missed last week. I should have probably triple-teamed him. With Randolph Childress, the law of averages doesn't exist."
After Childress' shot, the Blue Devils called timeout and set up their final play. Sophomore Jeff Capel slashed his way through the Demon Deacon defense and found a hole around the free-throw line, near the same area where Hill took Duke's final shot last year. And just like Hill's jumper, Capel's shot bounced off the rim and onto the floor.
"The last shot was what we wanted to get," Gaudet said. "We had six seconds, and that's enough time to get the ball inbounds and get it to someone who had a driving area. We had three shooters ready to spot up for a pass.
"Jeff took it as far as he could and decided to take [the shot]. It was a medium-range jumper, and that is a shot he makes."
Despite the loss, the Duke players were confident with their performance.
"I thought that we played a great game," freshman Ricky Price said. "Randolph Childress is a great player and he made a great shot. We had an open shot that just didn't fall for us. That's how basketball is--you win some, you lose some."
Unfortunately for the Blue Devils, they've been losing most of those close contests. For the third time in the past two weeks, the Blue Devils--now 11-12 overall, 1-10 in the conference--lost a game by a single basket.
"We really put our hearts on the line and played tough, but Childress made a great shot," senior Erik Meek said. "It's tough when you have so many of those close ones and you don't get any of them."
Meanwhile, No. 11 Wake Forest improved its record to 15-5 overall, 6-4 in the ACC.
"That was the best basketball game that we have played in all year," Wake Forest head coach Dave Odom said. "Neither team backed off. You had two teams that did not back up, that just played their ever-loving selves to a dripping sweat and into exhaustion. We feel very fortunate to come out of here with a win."
One of the positives for Duke was its ability to shut down Wake center Tim Duncan. The Blue Devil twin towers of Meek and Cherokee Parks held the sophomore sensation to just four points on 2-of-11 shooting.
"[Meek and Parks] fought Duncan the whole game and did a real good job on him," Blakeney said.
The game was close from the outset and contained 10 lead changes. With 7:28 left in the first half, a dunk by Travis Banks, who finished with 16 points, gave the Demon Deacons their biggest lead in the half at 25-16. But the Blue Devils fought back, and used a 14-4 run to close the half with a one-point lead.
The Blue Devils ended the half playing a zone defense. Because of the success of the defense at the end of the first stanza, Gaudet decided to open the second half in the zone. But Wake scored four quick points and took a three-point lead.
"I felt that the zone had worked at the end of the first half, and I didn't want to go into it later on," Gaudet said.
Still, the Blue Devils managed to stay within three points of the Deacons the entire second half. During the last four minutes, the two teams exchanged one-point leads twice.
Duke took the lead at 57-56 with 3:40 left in the game on two Blakeney free throws. In their next two possessions, the Blue Devils took some tough shots and did not score, while Wake put four points on the board to take a 60-57 lead at the 1:20 mark.
A Langdon jump shot cut the lead to one with just over a minute to play. Wake then called timeout with 54 seconds left in the game, hoping to put the final nail in the Blue Devils' coffin.
But instead, they ran into the hand of Erik Meek, who swatted away Duncan's shot attempt. Meek then came up big on the offensive end with a slam dunk with 31 seconds left in the game. The senior center said he thought that his exchange on both ends of the court would be the game-winning play.
"I was really hoping [that would be a game winner]," Meek said. "I was thinking, `Let's play some defense and get a stop here and win this.' But Childress made a great play."
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