Duke just might have to make this a yearly tradition.
Dave McClure and Jon Scheyer firmly placed their names alongside duos Laettner and Hill and Dockery and McRoberts in the lore of Blue Devil late-game heroics.
With 4.4 seconds remaining in a 66-66 game and Clemson (18-3, 4-3 in the ACC) holding every ounce of momentum after an unthinkable comeback, Scheyer caught a pass deep into the backcourt-much farther away from the basket than the coaching staff had wanted. The freshman drove up the sideline and, still uncertain whether there would be enough time to make the play, rifled a pass to a cutting McClure.
McClure caught the pass and took a dribble down the center of the lane. The redshirt sophomore went up over K.C. Rivers and Vernon Hamilton, double clutched and released a tough floater with one tenth of a second remaining on the clock.
As the horn sounded, the ball bounced around the rim before finally falling through and giving Duke a 68-66 victory. The Blue Devils (17-3, 4-2) piled onto McClure in celebration under the basket as they won their fourth straight game and moved into fourth place in the ACC.
"We felt like we could just push it," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the final play. "They actually took away what we had diagrammed, but Jon made a play and Dave made a shot. It's not an easy shot."
McClure's shot saved the Blue Devils from overtime and what could have been a devastating late collapse after they had led by two baskets with less than 10 ticks left.
Gerald Henderson drained two free throws with 12 seconds remaining to give Duke a seemingly comfortable five-point margin, but Hamilton streaked down the court and hit a high layup over Josh McRoberts with five seconds left. The Tigers applied full-court pressure, as they had for most of the game, and McRoberts threw the inbounds pass behind a cutting Greg Paulus. The ball bounced right into Hamilton's waiting hands, and the Clemson senior set himself and buried the tying three.
"We just made a mistake," Krzyzewski said. "We got them to shoot a two and we had a three-point lead and a timeout, and we made a mistake. And that kid Hamilton is a hell of a player. I mean, we threw the ball right to him, but he still had to hit it, and he hit it. Thank God he hit it quick."
Down three with six and a half minutes left, the Tigers came out of a timeout in a rare 2-3 zone, and Jon Scheyer took advantage by hitting a three-pointer from the corner to put the Blue Devils up, 58-52. The basket was the last field goal Duke would score until McClure's game-winner, but the Blue Devils maintained a lead by hitting all eight of their free throws in the final stretch.
In addition, Duke, which shot just 33 percent in the second half, benefitted from its dominance on the glass. Clemson came into Thursday's contest as the top offensive rebounding team in the ACC at 15.4 per game, but the Blue Devils outpaced the Tigers 17-6 on the offensive glass. Duke won the total rebounding battle by 16, which allowed the Blue Devils to keep the lead during stretches where they went cold.
"For us to out-rebound them 40-24 shows the effort that my guys had the whole night," Krzyzewski said. "We were very deserving to win. We just could not put the ball in the basket at times."
Luckily for the Blue Devils, McClure put the ball in the basket at just the right time.
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