Duke Survives Shock

Blue Devils Overcome 15th-Seeded Belmont on Henderson's Layup : Duke 71, Belmont 70

It is exceedingly difficult for a college basketball player, particularly one from a place such as Belmont University, to sort through the mess in his head in the situation the Bruins found themselves last night. Their locker room at Verizon Center was quiet, a complete overhaul from the raucousness they had created in the crowd only minutes earlier, when they had Duke -- the three-time national champion, the second seed in the NCAA tournament's West Region -- beaten in the final seconds.

Fifty-nine minutes of possibility put the Bruins on the edge of history, because just four 15 seeds have won games in the tournament. But in that last minute, Duke's Gerald Henderson grabbed a rebound, dribbled the length of the court, laid the ball in, and the Blue Devils somehow withstood two more last-gasp Belmont attempts -- but barely.

The final: Duke 71, Belmont 70. The emotions, for the losers, toggled between pride and misery.

"You're angry," said junior guard Andy Wicke, stellar in scoring 14 points. "You're frustrated. You're thinking about if one play would've gone this way, it would've been different.

"At the same time, I'm sitting here with three other guys that I came into school with, and they're graduating. They're not going to be here next year. It's a game that ends your season."

The ramifications, at least on brackets across the nation, are that Duke did the expected, advancing to the second round Saturday, when it will play West Virginia, which defeated Arizona, 75-65, in last night's late game. But for the players from Belmont -- location: Nashville; enrollment: 4,765 -- there were moments when the unexpected seemed probable.

"Still kind of in shock," Belmont junior Henry Harris said. "Still just amazed that we were that close, 20 seconds away from winning the game."

So, too, were the Blue Devils, who looked lead-footed and frazzled for much of the second half, when Belmont calmly eliminated a 10-point lead. With 10 minutes 59 seconds remaining, junior guard Alex Renfroe -- who led the balanced, backdoor-cutting Bruins with 15 points -- drove hard to the rim, laid the ball in, drew a foul and made the free throw. The Bruins led, 58-56, and Verizon Center exploded, because nothing unites a crowd on the first day of the NCAA tournament like an underdog pushing one of the sport's heavies.

From that point, the outcome was never certain. The Blue Devils looked like that they might end up like Syracuse in 1991, Arizona in 1993, South Carolina in 1997, Iowa State in 2001 -- the only No. 2 seeds to lose in the first round.

"I've coached in 89 of these games now," Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said, "and I told the guys as far as game pressure goes, this has to rank in the top three or four."

For a while, Belmont seemed impervious to it. The Bruins had been to the tournament each of the past two years, and with experience came poise. With 2:02 left, Wicke grabbed a rebound of a miss by Duke senior DeMarcus Nelson -- who scored two points -- and was fouled. His two free throws put Belmont up 70-69. The Bruins began to feel something.

"We were on the bench, and everybody was looking around going, 'You know, we're really in this game,' " Harris said. " 'We really can win this game.' . . . Just kind of had a bit of amazement in your brain. At that point, you're just kind of sitting there like, 'Wow.' "

Ultimately, though, Henderson eliminated that feeling. The junior scored just four points in the first half, but was the only Blue Devil who played with consistent ferocity after halftime. "He played angry," Duke guard Jon Scheyer said. "You could see the look in his eye."

Henderson scored a game-high 21 on the night, and Duke's last eight, but the play that will be remembered is the rebound he snared off Renfroe's miss, his length-of-the-court drive and his layup with 11.9 seconds left, giving Duke the lead. Krzyzewski called it "one of our great plays for us this year."

Belmont had two final chances, but Nelson fought through a screen to intercept an inbounds pass with four seconds left. And after Nelson missed the front end of a one-and-one, Justin Hare heaved a 30-footer. "I thought it had a chance," he said.

The shot, though, clanked off the side of the rim. With it, Belmont's season -- and the possibility of a historic upset -- ended.

"It's just tough," Wicke said. "Really tough."