With Duke trying to protect a hard-earned lead down the stretch of their 90-70 victory over Wake Forest, Kyle Singler drove toward the basket but got caught in mid-air by big man Tony Woods, the force of the foul flinging Singler off-balance and sending him hard to the floor.
Singler, however, bounced up like nothing had happened and circled toward the Duke students, his screams of "Let's go!" inaudible over the chaotic crowd.
Singler tried to gather himself, then let go of a free throw that fell well short of the rim.
"I was worried and I was laughing at the same time," teammate Nolan Smith said. "I just said, 'What was that?' as if I didn't see what just happened.
"And he was like, 'I've got this one, I've got this one,' and he was able to knock it in."
Singler made the second free throw to extend the Blue Devils' lead to 14, just one example of a physical and emotionally charged night where the adage, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again," never rang more true.
"That was one of the truly great moments," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said of Singler's second free throw. "That was the hardest game we've played this year. That was a hard-fought game.
"Certain games are just played at a higher level, and tonight was one of them."
Now the eighth-ranked Blue Devils (15-2, 3-1 ACC), who got career highs of 19 points and 14 rebounds from sophomore Miles Plumlee, must hope this game doesn't negatively impact upcoming ones. Singler briefly left the game to have his right wrist wrapped. Though Singler returned, Krzyzewski said he would undergo further tests.
Before the incident, Singler and Co. survived a serious test from the Demon Deacons (12-4, 2-2). Wake Forest rallied from a 50-38 deficit to tie the game at 55-all with 14 minutes left, but then the Blue Devils reeled off 10 unanswered points in less than a minute to claim a double-digit lead for good.
Wake got only two shots during the flurry. Singler, who finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds, started it with a 3-pointer, then Jon Scheyer -- who saw his streak of double-digit games end at 28 -- drove for a three-point play after an Ish Smith miss at the other end.
Al-Farouq Aminu, who paced all scorers with 22 points, missed for Wake, setting up a fast break in which Ish Smith was whistled for an intentional foul going hard after a Mason Plumlee dunk attempt.
Plumlee made the free throws, then Lance Thomas hit a jumper on the subsequent possession.
"Kyle hit the biggest shot the game," Krzyzewski said. "The three, it wasn't off of anything. He just saw an opportunity and seized it.
"Then we're able to make a stop, and Jon did the same thing in transition, creating a three-point opportunity. After that, I thought we played sensational basketball the rest of the game."
Singler and Nolan Smith (20 points) carried Duke in the second half, but the Blue Devils wouldn't have been in such good shape if not for the second efforts of the Plumlee brothers in the first half. Even with Singler, Smith and Scheyer (nine points) combining to hit just 5 of 28 shots in the first half, Duke still led 46-38 thanks to the Plumlees. The brothers who hit 9 of 13 shots with 17 rebounds -- including 11 of Duke's 16 offensive rebounds -- in the first half.
Miles Plumlee had a double-double before halftime, with 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Mason Plumlee had 10 points and six rebounds in the first half and added one more in each category after halftime.
"We survived because our big guys came to fight ... especially Miles," Smith said. "He played his tail off and didn't back down from Aminu and those guys.
"When they hit him, he got in a little bit of foul trouble, but he came back in and kept fighting. He hit them back, and it wore them down."
When foul trouble slowing Scheyer, Thomas and eventually Mason Plumlee in the first half, Wake threatened to take control. The Deacons got 12 offensive rebounds themselves in the first half, with 7-footer Chas McFarland (17 points, 10 rebounds) scoring on follow shots three times.
Aminu gave Wake its first lead at 30-28 and extended it with a couple of free throws, but Duke closed the half with an 18-6 run --capped by a 3-pointer by Scheyer in the final seconds -- then scored the first four points of the second half for a 50-38 lead.
Wake came all the way back, but Duke answered with a vengeance.
"Wake came at us hard, and we went back at them hard," Nolan Smith said. "There was a little animosity. They're as big a rival as Carolina as far as the players go because they're right down the road and we know each other.
"It was a 40-minute game that we had to fight for. We ended up grinding it out and pulling away at the end."
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