Belmont came within 11.9 seconds of joining the fraternity of NCAA tournament history-makers — and surpassing them all.
Duke, seeded second in the West Regional and ranked ninth in the nation, was saved from one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament Thursday night when Gerald Henderson stole the ball for a coast-to-coast drive to the go-ahead points and then DeMarcus Nelson intercepted an errant inbound pass.
That was all that prevented the Nashville school from becoming the fourth No. 15 seed to win a tournament game. Instead, the champions of the Atlantic Sun conference fell 71-70 before an increasingly partisan crowd at the Verizon Center.
Belmont led Duke (29-5) just twice in the second half, the last with 2 minutes 2 seconds to go when Justin Hare’s two free throws put the Bruins up 70-69. The Bruins withstood two Duke possessions, misses by Greg Paulus and Henderson, and had the ball with 47.9 seconds left. They milked the clock before Alex Renfroe drove the right side of the lane.
But Henderson dislodged and stole the ball. Henderson bolted the other way, through the slow-reacting Belmont defense, and laid it in for the 71-70 final margin.
“Coach (Mike Krzyzewski) said, ‘If you get the ball, just push the ball and get them off balance,'” Henderson recalled being told in the timeout before his steal and mad dash. “At the three-point line, I saw them in the lane, and I just took it strong.”
Belmont (25-10) missed on three tries at taking the lead after that, the crusher coming with four seconds left as Renfroe tried to inbound from under his basket, threw the pass too far inside Henry Harris and saw Nelson pick it off. Hare’s final 30-foot heave at the buzzer fell short.
“As far as game-pressure games, it has to rank in the top two or three for us,” Krzyzewski said. “I hope Belmont takes that as a compliment.”
The packed house — which had started chanting “Let’s go, Belmont!” during a timeout with 1:40 to go — gave the Bruins a standing ovation as the players and coach Rick Byrd walked dejectedly to the locker room.
“To be this close — oh, so close — to get a huge win for our school … you need to go in and talk to those kids who are crying,” said Byrd of his team, in its third straight NCAA tournament. “We lost by one point, but it’s unfair because it doesn’t measure the effort those kids put into the game.”
