Finding redemption

There was apparently nothing wrong with Wake Forest that a visit from the No. 1 team in the nation couldn't cure.

James Johnson, making amends for two breakdowns on the defensive end, scored with 0.8 remaining to lift the sixth-ranked Deacons past top-ranked Duke 70-68 in front of a deafening capacity crowd of 14,655 at Joel Coliseum.

Having squandered all 13 points of their second-half lead, the Deacons faced overtime before Johnson took a baseline inbound pass from L.D. Williams, beat the help-side defense of Nolan Smith and laid in the winning basket. The Blue Devils' last gasp expired when Williams intercepted Kyle Singler's 75-foot pass.

"It's not something we have in our playbook," Coach Dino Gaudio said of Johnson's winning basket. "We were drawing in the sand a little bit."

And just like that, the lingering apprehension from last week's first loss to Virginia Tech while ranked No. 1 vanished. The Deacons improved to 17-1 and 4-1 in the ACC, while Duke slipped to 18-2 and 5-1 with its first loss in 11 games.

"When you have a whole week off like that, it soaks in and kinda gets to you," junior David Weaver said. "We just wanted to come out and prove to everybody that that loss last week wasn't us, and that we had to rebound."

Gaudio stoked his team's emotional fires by constantly reminding them of a quote from ESPN commentator Jay Bilas, who wondered what the Deacons would do once they saw their own blood.

"Coach Gaudio said, ‘Remember what Jay Bilas said,'" Jeff Teague said. "It was getting to us.

"So tonight we stepped up, came out and played well."

Johnson needed the last-second heroics to save his face as well as the game. The Deacons led 68-66 with time dwindling down when Johnson first was outhustled to a rebound by Duke's Jon Scheyer and then failed to get out in time to keep Gerald Henderson from drilling the tying shot from in front of the Blue Devils' bench.

Jeff Teague's driving shot was blocked, and Al-Farouq Aminu missed a follow before Henderson rebounded and was called for traveling. Wake Forest called a timeout with 2.6 seconds left to set up the final play, during which Johnson slipped around Henderson and got free to the basket when Smith failed to provide help.

"I messed up on the defensive end twice in a row," Johnson said. "That's unacceptable for me and my teammates. I felt like I let them down a little bit.

"Scheyer, he came up with the loose ball. He wanted it more and he hustled harder. And then Gerald Henderson made a great move and a great shot, but still it's my responsibility and I should have had that.

"I'm going to apologize to my team."

Teague, admittedly playing tentatively, scored only 11 points, but the Deacons compensated by getting 15 points and 10 rebounds from freshman Al-Farouq Aminu, 13 points and 11 rebounds from Johnson, seven points and four assists from Ish Smith, and nine points and three rebounds from Weaver. But after struggling to stop Virginia Tech, the Deacons were again at their best at the defensive end as they held the Blue Devils to 28 percent in the first half and a season-low 33 percent for the game.

Singler led Duke with 22 points and 12 rebounds and headed the Blue Devils' late comeback with two clutch 3-pointers, the first cutting the lead to 62-57 and the second pulling Duke to 67-73 with 2:50 left.

Henderson finished with 20 points and eight rebounds and David McClure contributed tight defense on Teague while pulling down 12 rebounds.

"I didn't think we had the aggressiveness or toughness that we showed for most of the season," Coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke said. "Then all of a sudden we had so much of it, it was unbelievable.

"Our kids played so hard to put themselves in a position to win. We were horrible on defending that last play."

The Deacons led 33-28 at halftime, holding Duke to only 11 field goals on 39 attempts. The Blue Devils remained in the game by mining the offensive boards for 12 offensive rebounds that they converted into 12 second-chance points.

With Smith and Teague breaking down the Blue Devils' guards, the Deacons staged a 13-5 run that extended their lead to 61-48 with nine minutes remaining. The rally hit its crescendo when Smith passed back between his legs for a thunderous dunk from Aminu, who was trailing.

But Smith, for one, wasn't pleased with the Deacons' play in the final eight minutes, when they missed five free throws, failed to convert driving layups and were outscored 20-7.

"That last two or three minutes we really played not to lose, instead of going and getting the game," Smith said. "We missed a couple of free throws. I missed a jump shot. We played not to lose, which isn't a good thing when you're playing a team coached by Coach K.

"They were resilient, and fought back. But I'm telling you Coach drew up a great play, James finished and we got a win."

■ Dan Collins can be reached at 727-7323 or at dcollins@wsjournal.com.

DUKE Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Henderson 30 9-17 2-4 3-8 1 4 20

Zoubek 13 0-3 0-0 2-2 0 0 0

Smith 21 1-5 4-6 1-4 0 2 6

Singler 37 7-19 6-6 4-12 1 2 22

Scheyer 34 2-10 8-8 2-3 2 4 13

Paulus 17 2-6 0-0 0-2 2 2 5

McClure 25 0-2 0-0 2-12 1 1 0

Williams 3 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Plumlee 7 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2

Thomas 13 0-1 0-0 0-2 1 4 0

Totals 200 22-66 20-24 15-47 8 21 68

Percentages: FG .333, FT .833. 3-Point Goals: 4-22, .182 (Singler 2-5, Paulus 1-5, Scheyer 1-7, Williams 0-1, Henderson 0-2, Smith 0-2). Team Rebounds: 2. Blocked Shots: 5 (Henderson, Thomas, Smith, Singler, Zoubek). Turnovers: 15 (Henderson 7, Singler 4, Smith 2, Scheyer, Zoubek). Steals: 8 (Henderson 3, Paulus 2, Plumlee, Scheyer, McClure). Technical Fouls: None.

WFU Min FG-A FT-A OR-T A PF PT

Aminu 33 5-14 5-6 3-10 2 4 15

Johnson 36 4-8 5-7 0-11 3 2 13

McFarland 18 4-6 1-5 3-7 0 4 9

Teague 34 4-14 1-2 0-3 2 3 11

Williams 21 2-6 0-0 1-2 1 3 4

Clark 4 0-1 2-2 0-1 0 0 2

Hale 10 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 0

Smith 25 3-8 1-1 0-2 4 0 7

Weaver 19 3-5 3-4 2-3 0 1 9

Totals 200 25-62 18-27 11-43 12 18 70

Percentages: FG .403, FT .667. 3-Point Goals: 2-10, .200 (Teague 2-3, Smith 0-1, Clark 0-1, Johnson 0-1, Williams 0-2, Aminu 0-2). Team Rebounds: 4. Blocked Shots: 9 (Johnson 4, Aminu 2, McFarland 2, Weaver). Turnovers: 11 (Aminu 4, McFarland 2, Smith 2, Williams, Teague, Hale). Steals: 10 (Teague 3, McFarland 2, Aminu, Johnson, Smith, Weaver, Clark). Technical Fouls: None.

Duke 28 40 -- 68


Wake Forest 33 37 -- 70

A--14,665