CHARLOTTE - Dave Odom called it winning time.
For about 35 minutes yesterday, Wake Forest battled Duke evenly and had an opportunity to pull off a huge upset. But in a four-minute stretch to close the game, the top-seeded Blue Devils (26-4, 15-1 in the ACC) dominated the Deacons (16-14, 7-9) with a barrage of clutch plays to win 82-73 and advance to the finals of the ACC tournament.
With 5:10 left to play, Chris Carrawell fouled Josh Howard as he launched a shot from behind the three-point arc. The shot didn't fall, but Howard made all three free throws and narrowed Duke's lead to 68-65.
But on the ensuing possession, Jason Williams charged down the court, found Nate James open in the right corner, and just like that, James launched a three that extended Duke's lead back to six.
"That was the biggest basket of the game, because the momentum had really turned in Wake Forest's favor," Mike Krzyzewski said. "To get that basket right away was huge.
The two teams battled for the next 2:14, with neither team scoring a bucket until James drained another three-this time from the opposite corner-that gave the Blue Devils a 74-65 lead and essentially finished off the Deacons.
"For 36 minutes, it was a dead-even game," Odom said afterwards. "But, as we all know, there is win time in basketball played at this level. There was about a four-minute period of time where they won the game. They decided the game in four minutes. Some of the things that happened were acts of commission by them and some of them were acts of omission by us. In that, games are decided."
James, for the second game of the tournament, emerged as the Blue Devils' unlikely star, scoring 14 points on 4-of-6 shooting from three-point land to go along with his team-high nine rebounds. All this, following a first half in which he didn't score a single point.
"I think he was a veteran today," Krzyzewski said of James. "Nate didn't score a point in the first half, then all of a sudden he scores 14 in the second half. He didn't wait until the next game to make his adjustments. That's the experience he's given us."
But fame has its price, and with 1:28 left, James stole the ball, streaked down the court for what should have been an easy layup, only to get leveled from behind by Howard, who was called for the flagrant foul.
"I think I would have flagrant fouled Nate too," Carrawell said. "When you see a guy who's just hit two huge threes on the fast break, you want to level him."
But the explosive finish was not indicative of the Blue Devils' start, as Duke found itself down by as many as eight points in the first half. The Blue Devils rebounded in the final seven minutes and were down by one at halftime.
"The first 10 minutes of the game, they really beat us down the court and our defense didn't have a chance to get set up. I thought our kids made a great adjustment.... [The last 10 minutes of the half] was the key to the game because we carried that over into the second half."
Some of the turnaround can be credited to Mike Dunleavy, who scored 12 points in the first half on 3-of-4 shooting. The freshman sixth-man again defied medical reason and in just his second game back from mononucleosis, Dunleavy finished with 15 points over 22 minutes.
"I think it looks kind of bad-people are saying I never had [mono]," Dunleavy said. "But I did. My legs are fresh, and I did a lot of thinking, a lot of watching games. I couldn't get away from basketball even if I tried.... I feel very fortunate [to be able to play]."
Duke managed to survive despite shooting just 38.2 percent from the field, compared to Wake's 50.9 percent shooting clip. Following Thursday's record-setting three-point barrage, the Blue Devils again relied heavily on the long ball, launching up 30 threes, making 13 of them.
"We came into the game thinking the first thing we had to take away was their three," Odom said. "I thought we did a pretty good job of that until I look and see that they made 13. It's so hard to stretch a defense when you're not accustomed to that.... They shot less than 40 percent for the game, but they were 13-for-30 from three [point range] which makes that a misnomer. That was enough to win the basketball game."
With the win, Duke can win its second-straight ACC tournament title with a win over Maryland Sunday at 1 p.m. The Terrapins advanced to the finals with a 64-61 win against N.C. State.
The showcase final features the ACC's top two seeds and will likely test Duke to the limit. The Terrapins are, one may recall, the only conference team to beat the Blue Devils in the past two years.
"Maryland's a great team," Carrawell said. "If you look at the first team All-ACC, they have two guys on the team, we have two guys on the team. They have a great freshman point guard in Steve Blake, we have a great freshman point guard in Jason Williams.... Morris and Battier, myself and Dixon. He torched me last game. The match-ups are great match-ups."
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