Duke escapes Virginia

As the University Hall crowd chanted, "This game's over!," they may not have realized the tragic ending they were foreshadowing for Virginia.

With five seconds remaining and the Blue Devils trailing 61-60, Duke inbounded the ball to junior Steve Wojciechowski, who streaked down the court and drew a foul from Norman Nolan with 2.2 seconds remaining. However, the referees failed to acknowledge that the game clock had been stopped to allow Willie Dersch to enter the game for the Cavaliers, and thus the clock was not started until Wojo crossed mid-court.

Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, Virginia coach Jeff Jones and the three referees then huddled around the official scorers' table in an attempt to correct the error that nearly all of 8,394 fans had seen. And while the partisan crowd tried to sway the decision in their favor, the refs determined that the clock had failed to run for only 1.5 seconds, giving Wojciechowski .7 seconds to nail a pair of free throws for the win-and leaving Virginia with almost no time for a comeback if he connected.

The smallest player on the court then came up big, as he nailed both shots to steal a win that Duke (20-5, 9-3 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) easily could have lost.

"There were five seconds left and Coach told me to just run it up the court and see what I can get, and fortunately I got fouled," Wojciechowski said. "I guess there was some debate about whether the game clock was started soon enough. Either way, I made it up to the rim in less than five seconds. Luckily I got fouled and I was glad I was able to make the free throws at the end.

"Either way [with the clock], I'm gonna get two free throws and the chance to win the game, and I was very fortunate that [the shots] were able to go in."

The Blue Devils were fortunate to be in a position to win in the final seconds, as they managed to hit only 35 percent of their shots in what sophomore guard Trajan Langdon called Duke's worst shooting game of the season, "by far."

In the first half, the Blue Devils were successful on only one out of every four shots, including 18.2 percent from beyond the three-point arc. To make matters worse, the usually accurate Blue Devils only hit 55.6 percent of their free throws.

"Our effort wasn't there for most of the game," senior Jeff Capel said. "Our defense was not as good as it has been in the last few games, but we knew that in order to win, we would have to come out and play better. We realized we had played one of our worst halves we've played all year, so we had to step up our effort, and maybe for the last few minutes we played with a championship effort."

Duke finally reclaimed the lead at 52-51 with 6:07 remaining on a Roshown McLeod driving layup, but Virginia continued to thwart the Blue Devil rallies with clutch plays of its own.

After a Curtis Staples free throw tied the game at 52, Staples answered again with a big three-pointer to return the momentum to the Wahoos.

A Ricky Price jumper brought the score back within one, but Nolan answered with an easy lay-in off a feed from Harold Deane.

Again, Duke tried to come back, as a McLeod rebound bucket brought the game to 57-56, but Dersch came up with a huge three-point play to stretch the Virginia lead to four with just over two minutes remaining.

"When Dersch makes that three-point play-I thought that was the game-winner," Krzyzewski said.

But then the Blue Devils' senior leadership stepped up, as Capel put Duke in a position to win with clutch free throws.

On the ensuing Blue Devil possession after Dersch's play, Capel drew a foul from Colin Ducharme to stop the clock and bring Duke within three by hitting one shot from the charity stripe.

Virginia then milked the clock down to 1:22, but Nolan walked before he could attempt a shot.

Wojciechowski pushed the ball up the court as Duke still trailed by three, and he found Langdon open for the three. And although Langdon missed the shot, Capel was there to collect the board, as well as a foul from Dersch to again give the Blue Devils a timeless opportunity, this time to draw within one, 60-59.

Following the pair of Capel connections, the Cavaliers again played the odds with the clock, waiting until there were just 26.6 seconds left in the game before Durham native Courtney Alexander launched an ill-fated three-point attempt that missed badly and ricocheted into a crowd of players.

Wojciechowski was able to emerge victorious from the scrum, and he quickly called timeout to give the Blue Devils the last possession, trailing by one.

Wojo quickly brought the ball up and missed a three from the top of the key, but Capel was there again to corral the offensive board and draw a foul in traffic.

Capel swooshed through the first shot, but missed the second to leave the game tied at 60 with 11 seconds left.

"Jeff was huge for us tonight," Langdon said. "The majority of the perimeter was struggling shooting the ball, but he was in there battling and he got a couple of great offensive boards. He then put it up and got fouled and knocked down those free throws to put pressure on Virginia."

After Capel missed the second shot, though, Staples pushed the ball ahead to Nolan, who was fouled under the boards by Langdon with five seconds left. He was only able to convert one shot, though, which put the Blue Devils in position for their last-second win on the pair of Wojciechowski free throws.

"There was a sense of urgency," Capel said. "We were down and we wanted to win this game. We realized that we didn't play well as well as we've been playing in '97. But we still put ourselves in a position to win the game."