RALEIGH--When the buzzer finally sounded, the crowd of 12,400 in Reynolds Coliseum stood in a stunned silence. Duke senior Chris Collins got some lucky bounces, and N.C. State's Curtis Marshall did not.
Collins launched a 24-foot three-pointer with 5.5 seconds remaining on the clock, and his shot bounced four times before settling into the basket to give the Blue Devils a 71-70 lead. The Wolfpack (11-5, 1-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) went coast to coast in a last-second attempt to win the contest, but Marshall's layup rolled in and out of the basket to give the Blue Devils (10-6, 1-4 in the ACC) their first conference victory of the season.
"We got a couple of lucky breaks at the end with bounces on the rim, but we felt we played hard enough to deserve to win," Collins said. "We feel this is going to be a great stepping stone for us."
Head coach Mike Krzyzew-ski echoed the joyous sentiments of his players following the game.
"It was a great win for us," Krzyzewski said. "I thought it was an unbelievable basketball game.... It was a tough loss for them and a great win for us."
N.C. State head coach Les Robinson was amazed with the ending.
"That was quite a finish," Robinson said. "I was proud of our team, though, on that last play. Their shot rolled around and went through, ours rolled around and went out.... How can you get anything better with 5.5 seconds left?"
The Wolfpack held a 68-63 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the game, but Collins and the rest of the Blue Devils stepped up their play in the waning moments and finished off N.C. State with little room to spare. Collins nailed a long three to cut the lead to two with 88 seconds remaining, but after the Wolfpack ran time off the clock and grabbed their own offensive board, sophomore Ricky Price fouled Ishua Benjamin with 34.5 seconds remaining.
Benjamin made the second of his two free throws, and Duke faced a three-point deficit. Junior Jeff Capel drove into the lane for a layup to cut State's lead to one at 69-68. After a Blue Devil timeout and an immediate foul by Collins, Marshall faced a chance to put the Pack up by three with two more free throws. Like Benjamin, he managed to hit just the second of the shots.
"On a couple of plays, we shot a little quickly... so that was not good," Robinson said of his team's play down the stretch. "But we still had many chances to win the game... There at the end, we missed a couple of free throws and they hit some threes."
Duke faced one last chance to win the game. And this time, unlike in previous games this season, the last-second attempt worked.
"I'm more happy for them, because they've worked so hard in these first four ballgames," Krzyzewski said. "To win like this is just terrific."
The contest was a back-and-forth battle all night long. Although the Blue Devils led early in the first half, taking their biggest margin of seven at the 12:40 mark, N.C. State fought back to knot the score at 35 at halftime. The Wolfpack's Todd Fuller paced his team, scoring 13 of his 27 points in the opening stanza, including a perfect 6-for-6 from the charity stripe.
"Fuller is amazing," Krzyzewski said. "He's just an incredible player... We tried everything to stop Fuller--we couldn't stop him."
The Wolfpack engineered a 14-4 run to open a 10-point margin merely five minutes into the half. And although the Blue Devils responded with a 10-2 run of their own cut the lead to two just two and a half minutes later, N.C. State launched a 9-1 run to take another double-digit lead.
"In the second half, we were down 10, but we never gave up," Capel said. "We kept on fighting, and we kept on attacking."
The Blue Devils attacked the Wolfpack slowly in the last eight minutes of the game, etching away at the 10-point lead. Collins nailed one of his eight three pointers of the night at the six-minute mark to keep the Blue Devils in contention.
Duke shot 28-for-58 from the field against the Wolfpack, including 9-of-18 from behind the three-point arc.
"I thought our guys got more open looks, we took better shots throughout the game and we had the ability to drive the basketball, which is very important," Krzyzewski said. "It was a hard, well-earned win."
The Blue Devils received a balanced effort from their players, as Collins and Capel scored 20 each, while junior Carmen Wallace, starting in only his second game of the year, poured in 12.
"Carmen played very inspired," Krzyzewski said. "We got killed on the boards because of their strength... but Carmen [stepped up] with his quickness, driving the ball to the basket."
With the win, Duke gains a much-needed confidence builder for its next few ACC games. The Blue Devils will have little time to rejoice about the last-second victory, however, as they face Florida State on Saturday at 9 p.m.
"We definitely feel good about getting [a win], but we can't be satisfied with this," Capel said. "We can't celebrate this win too long--we can celebrate until we get off the bus in Durham [Thursday night], but we have to get back to work and get ready for Florida State."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.