BUFFALO, N.Y. - Greg Paulus and Eric Maynor had been battling each other all game-each No. 3 leading his team in scoring.
But in the final moments Thursday night, Maynor looked more like No. 23, doing his best Michael Jordan impression by hitting a foul-line jump shot with 1.8 seconds left to knock off Duke.
Maynor's final shot capped a wild back-and-forth finish to the game. With the game tied at 72, two floaters from Maynor sandwiched a Paulus layup to give VCU a 76-74 lead. After Josh McRoberts and Jesse Pellot-Rosa each hit one-of-two free throws, DeMarcus Nelson flew down the court and made an uncontested layup to tie the game at 77 with 12 seconds to play.
"When I hit that layup, the only thing that was going through my mind was I knew they had a lot of time on the clock to get the ball down and get off a shot," Nelson said. "We were just trying to match up and stop the ball."
Neither team called a timeout after Nelson's bucket. VCU was content to let Maynor improvise while Duke felt comfortable with Jon Scheyer-instead of Nelson-checking the sophomore guard.
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski defended his decision not to call timeout to set his defense.
"There were double digit seconds left," Krzyzewski said. "There was more than enough time for them to run something. We drill those things. I don't question the decision."
At the same time, Maynor did not want VCU head coach Anthony Grant to ask for a timeout.
"I had looked over at Coach Grant and I was trying to signal for him not to call a timeout," Maynor said. "I knew that when it got in my hands, I was going to try to bring my man down and make him play. It just happened the way it happened."
Scheyer picked Maynor up as he crossed the half-court line. The sophomore started to his right-the same direction he had driven for his three previous baskets. But with time ticking down, Maynor cut quickly to his left, creating just enough separation to launch the game-winner from 17 feet away.
"The whole game, [Maynor] was trying to get to the bucket," Scheyer said. "DeMarcus scored and all of a sudden I was on my heels running back, and I was just trying to keep him in front of me and make him pull up and hit a jump shot.... He was trying to go right the whole game, so I was trying to make him go left, and he pulled up-which he didn't do for awhile-but it was a tough shot. Obviously when I look back, I wouldn't have given him as much space. But it all happened so quickly."
The Blue Devils did not run a second defender at Maynor as time was running out, wary of allowing the Rams an open look at a three. VCU had made 9-of-16 from beyond the arc.
"It's a lot of different things you say you could've done," Nelson said. "But when you're going through it at the time, all you can do is react and go off instincts. But you got to give them credit, they fought the whole game, they were scrappy, and they never died."
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