Duhon floats past Wake

WINSTON-SALEM - It was supposed to be Robert O'Kelley's big day.

From Saturday's opening ceremony honoring the senior's four years to his three-point shot with 7.5 seconds remaining that brought his Demon Deacons to an 80-80 tie, it looked like the crowning achievement of a sometimes dominant, sometimes struggling career.

It indeed seemed like O'Kelley would have his moment to bask in glory at Lawrence Joel Memorial Coliseum. In fact, he had exactly 7.5 seconds to bask.

Then Chris Duhon stole both O'Kelley's moment and the game with a last-minute floater that left the lights shining on Duke's freshman, not Wake Forest's senior.

"Heck, I think Chris is a better shooter than me," Jason Williams said. "I went up and he caught my eye so I dished it off to him."

No. 4 Duke (25-3, 12-2 in the ACC) won 82-80, as No. 24 Wake Forest (18-9, 7-8) suffered yet another blow to its NCAA tournament hopes. The last-second win kept Duke in the hunt for the regular-season ACC title, especially with North Carolina's 20-point loss to Virginia yesterday. Both teams are now 12-2 in the conference.

"We felt coming in we could win the basketball game," Wake coach Dave Odom said. "We knew if we were, we had to play our best game of the year, because we knew Duke would. In some ways, I think we did.... I'm very proud of our team."

The Demon Deacons, holding a 75-66 lead with 5:16 remaining in the first half, found themselves tied 77-77 going into the final 120 seconds. At 1:15, Duhon missed a jumper on a drive down the middle and Broderick Hicks took the ball for Wake. Ten

Odom called a timeout with 20.3 seconds left, only to watch that total sink to 15.3 seconds after a referee's correction.

Eight seconds later, O'Kelley hit the three.

"O'Kelley was O'Kelley," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "What a shot he hit to tie the game. It was like an incredible play had to beat an incredible play."

And 7.5 seconds later, with Williams given no options but to pass to Duhon, the freshman floated to the basket and dropped the ball in with one hand.

"Chris has the ability to float," Krzyzewski said. "It's not the last of shots like that that he'll hit."

Duhon noted that he had hit a number of similar shots in practice. But the 6-foot-2 guard had not likely done it against a 268-pound monster like Wake's 6-foot-9 senior Rafael Vidaurreta.

"That's a shot you practice, but it's usually used when big men are coming to block your shot, to shoot it over them," Duhon said. "I knew I didn't have time to set up and shoot a jumper, so I just played off instinct."

The game remained competitive from the start as Duke led 41-40 at the half. By halftime, Wake had only attempted six shots from beyond the arc. By game's end, that number increased to 17, nine of which they made, as the Demon Deacons outshot Duke in three-pointers by a margin of 52 percent to the Blue Devils' 41 percent.

If Wake was encroaching on Duke's specialty, the Blue Devils also encroached on Wake as well. Perhaps the most physical team in the conference, the Deacons left both Duhon and Williams fallen on the floor Saturday afternoon, and their strongman Darius Songaila fouled out after only 13 minutes in the game. The Blue Devils out-rebounded Wake 42-34, slaughtering the Demon Deacons on defensive boards 27-19.

Indeed, Duke center Carlos Boozer found the basket with 7-for-13 shooting and found the glass too, with 13 rebounds.

But for O'Kelley, who stood alone in the Wake locker room while the cameras were shining on Duhon down the hall, it was a bittersweet end to a often bittersweet career.

"Well, we tied the game," said O'Kelley, whose team-high 17 points were not enough to pull out the win. "It was a shot I wanted to take for my team, and I thought with the time left, maybe we would go into overtime, but they came down and made a big shot. That's just the way it went."