GREENSBORO -- After Duke had cut N.C. State's lead to six, the Blue Devils were looking for a second wind. Their mini 6-0 spurt, as effective as it may have been, was not going to be enough to win the game, and neither was their current situation, trading baskets with the Wolfpack.
Duke knew it needed to put together another run. It was just a spark plug away.
The flame finally started with 3:39 left and the Wolfpack leading 69-63.
Running a route from the top of the key, Redick made his way over to the left baseline, and, after a pair of successful screens by Dahntay Jones and Casey Sanders, point guard Chris Duhon found the freshman wide open.
For State fans this was bad news--and they knew it. Redick squared up, fired, and before the shot had even fallen through the hoop, Duhon had started running back to defend. When the ball swished through the net, Duhon stood on the ACC logo at center court, waving his hands in the air, pumping up the crowd and celebrating.
Duke now trailed by only three, and in the ensuing minutes, it would be Redick who would sink a pair of free throws, two of his 30 points on the night, to give Duke the lead for good.
"J.J. Redick was sensational," Wolfpack head coach Herb Sendek said. "What more can you say?"
But Sendek's counterpart, Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski had more to say about his freshman.
Aside from joking that it was "about time" for him to hit a hot streak again, Krzyzewski pointed out that he could think of very few freshmen who had ever been more important to the team than Redick.
"He started us off in the regular season, and then he became the target of everyone," Krzyzewski said. "That doesn't happen very much as a freshman."
In the course of Redick's shooting coming full circle, Duke has also turned around. But instead of just shooting well at the end of the season, it has started creating for each other, playing more as a team.
The spark-plug play is a perfect example.
"On that play we did a great job of executing," Duhon said. "We set that play up in the huddle.... It was ours, our victory. When he let it go I just knew that it was going in."
Duhon said that the play was normally designed to have Sanders as the first screen and Jones setting the second; but liking Sanders' matchup better, the team switched the pair in the huddle.
As the tri-captain said, that was the "key" move--it was the team's way of showing confidence in Sanders' defensive ability and realizing that the Blue Devils would need play from all five positions to win.
"We don't have superstars," Duhon said. "There's no Jay Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mike Dunleavy or Shane Battier."
Duhon's statement may seem like a no-brainer--something the media's been pointing out ad nauseum this season--but it has just recently gotten into the Duke players' heads.
In most of its losses, Duke has seen its players try to create all by themselves, settling for risky, forced jump shots that lead to quick rebounds and conversions by the opposing team.
In its wins they pass, and work the ball around, letting the person with the open shot bury it.
The Blue Devils of course still lapse--especially when frustrated. For a few minutes, until Krzyzewski called a timeout, Duke had that problem against the Wolfpack, and in the early minutes of the semifinal against North Carolina they seemed to force things as well.
In both cases Duke calmed, started passing and went on a run.
"We started the game making just one pass and shooting," Krzyzewski said after beating the Tar Heels in the second round. "Once we started making three passes it was like how we played against Virginia a month ago."
One month later, Duke has done the same thing in back-to-back games. If it keeps it up, Duhon could be celebrating on a lot more center courts.
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