The more than 9,000 fans packing steamy Cameron Indoor Stadium, the commentators in the TV booth, the players in home white-they all must have been thinking the same thing: This wasn't supposed to happen.
Not after the Blue Devils vowed they had learned from the 97-73 embarrassment in Chapel Hill a month earlier. Not after center Elton Brand made a miraculous comeback from a fractured foot. Not after students camped out six weeks to see the final game of the regular season.
But there it was on the scoreboard, in plain view of everyone in the building. Second half, 11:40 left, UNC 64, Duke 47. Turns out, though, this wasn't supposed to happen after all.
What did happen was a 30-11 run by the top-ranked Blue Devils over the final 11-and-a-half minutes of play to earn coach Mike Krzyzewski his 500th victory, a 77-75 conquest of the No. 3 Tar Heels. The win made Duke the first team to capture 15 ACC games in one campaign and gave the Blue Devils sole possession of their second straight regular season conference crown.
Brand, appearing in only his third game after missing 15, scored 10 points during the comeback, and UNC made just one field goal in the final 8:45.
With less than two minutes remaining, forward Roshown McLeod-who carried his two-year-old son onto the court when Duke honored its seniors before the game-drained a leaner over Carolina All-American Antawn Jamison to give the Blue Devils a two-point lead they wouldn't relinquish.
Twice in the last four seconds, a Tar Heel stepped to the free throw line with a chance to tie the contest. But in a shaking, deafening Cameron, first Ed Cota, then Brendan Haywood missed both shots. When Haywood's second attempt bounced off the rim and the buzzer sounded, the Cameron Crazies stormed the court and joined with their team in rejoicing.
In the middle of the floor and amid all the chaos, Krzyzewski embraced senior Steve Wojciechowski, who asked that his hometown be announced as Durham, N.C., during pregame introductions. The point guard scored just one point, but his coach credited him with sparking the comeback.
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