Duke Downs Clemson on McClure’s Last-Second Heroics

Call it the magic of Cameron Indoor Stadium.

For the second time in as many seasons, Duke hit a buzzer-beater at home to take a game against an ACC opponent. This time, Oliver Purnell and the 17th-ranked Clemson Tigers were the victims.

There were questions for both teams entering the contest. Was Clemson as good as its 18-2 overall record? Was Duke for real after its three-game winning streak within the ACC? After an instant classic on Thursday night, it seemed as though the answer to both questions was a resounding “yes.”

It didn’t have to be that close.

Gerald Henderson hit two free throws with 12.7 seconds left to stretch the Duke lead to two possessions, 66-61. After Vernon Hamilton drove the length of the court and laid it in to cut the lead to 66-63 with five seconds left, it seemed all the Devils had to do was inbound the ball to secure a victory.

Not so fast.

Josh McRoberts threw the inbounds pass right to a waiting Hamilton at the top of the key, and he quickly knotted the score at 66 with 1.8 ticks left - and that’s when it got interesting.

The clock never ran when Hamilton caught the pass, starting only after the ball was already through the basket. After a lengthy review, it was ruled that 4.4 seconds were left for Duke to navigate downcourt. However, another look revealed it likely should have been closer to three seconds.

It turned out Duke needed all the time it could get.

McRoberts inbounded the ball to freshman Jon Scheyer, who hurried it across mid-court before dishing it to a streaking McClure in the paint for the winning basket. The Duke players mobbed McClure under the basket, while the Tigers could do nothing but walk back to their bench, stunned at what they had just witnessed.

The Devils seemed to take over the tempo, and the game, with a 14-2 run to end the first half. It started with steals on back-to-back possessions by McRoberts that resulted in a Greg Paulus lay-up and a lay-in of his own, respectively. After a tip-in by McClure made the score 34-25 for the home team, McRoberts provided the exclamation point with a dunk at the buzzer off a feed from Paulus, and the Devils opened up an 11-point lead at the break, 36-25.

Clemson fought back to make it a game in the second half despite a host of missed opportunities from close range in the first 20 minutes. Down 60-52 with 5:05 left in the game, Clemson went on an 8-0 run to pull even at 60. K.C. Rivers hit a jumper, and the visitors followed with three unanswered lay-ups, the last two from Garner native James Mays

Up to this point, Clemson had out-rebounded their opponents by more than five boards a game. Thursday, they found themselves on the short end of a 40-24 rebounding margin, including a 17-6 deficit on the offensive glass that showed up in the 19-4 advantage Duke had in second-chance points.

Despite the discrepancy, the Tigers were able to stay in the game with by hitting 10 of 11 free throws, good for 90.9 percent, more than 30 percentage points higher than their season average, which is the worst in the ACC.

McRoberts led Duke on the night with 17 points on 7-14 shooting, while Paulus (6-12, 13 points), Demarcus Nelson (6-13, 13 points) and Scheyer (2-10, 12 points) also finished in double figures.

Hamilton finished the game with 21 points for Clemson, while Mays had a big second half to end up with 13 points, four rebounds and five assists in the losing effort.

Notes: Duke has beaten Clemson 20 straight times … Mike Krzyzewski now has 770 wins in his career, including 697 wins at Duke … Jon Scheyer has hit 25 consecutive free throws, two away from the fifth most in Duke history … Duke next plays Boston College on Sunday, Jan. 28, at 5:30 p.m.