‘I’ll remember it the rest of my life.’ Duke’s Wendell Moore became a legend vs. UNC
Wendell Moore figured Tre Jones was about to win the first Duke-UNC game Moore had ever played in — first with a free throw, or then with a last-second shot.
But even though Jones did just about everything else in this extraordinary game, he missed both of those attempts, with the score tied at 96-all in overtime. Instead there was Moore, the freshman from Charlotte, doing the extraordinary himself while etching his name permanently into sports’ best rivalry. It took only one shot for Moore to become a rivalry legend -- much like players such as Austin Rivers, Walter Davis, Jeff Capel and Eric Montross had done before him.
First, Moore got a hand on Jones’ free throw with 6.6 seconds left to tip it outside to teammate Jordan Goldwire.
Jones quickly got the ball back from Goldwire and air-balled a jumper. But Moore grabbed the rebound from the left side and made a put-back layup at the buzzer, all in one stunning motion. The shot won a ridiculously gorgeous, sloppy, incredible Duke-UNC game, 98-96, and set off the kind of joyful celebration that every player dreams of in his driveway.
“I’ll remember it for the rest of my life,” Moore said.
The last 20 seconds of overtime were undoubtedly the best 20 seconds of basketball Moore has ever played, given the stakes.
“It really means everything,” Moore said. “For a kid growing up in Charlotte, watching this game for 18 years of my life, to get a chance to be a part of it, and then … this?”
Moore seemed to still be floating in the locker room late Saturday night, saying the enormity of his last-second shot hadn’t sunk in yet.
Duke made two miraculous comebacks to win this game — the 252nd edition of the Battle of the Blues. The second came in overtime after UNC — an unranked team that came in with a 10-12 record and played by far its best game of the season — took a five-point lead with 21 seconds to go.
Following a Jones layup to cut it to 96-93, Moore got the ball on the perimeter. Overplayed for the 3-point shot, he instead smartly drove inside for an uncontested layup. UNC still led, but only 96-95.
Then came a controversial but effective defensive play by Moore. As UNC’s Garrison Brooks threw a difficult sideline pass to Andrew Platek on the inbounds play — inexplicably skipping over a wide-open Christian Keeling in the process — Moore came storming in to defend. Moore, Platek and the ball all made some pretty serious contact. I thought Moore fouled Platek. On the ESPN broadcast, Jay Bilas did, too.
No foul was called, though, and the disputed no-call will be debated for days. And after review, it was determined that Platek touched the ball last. Duke’s ball.
Then came Jones, driving again to get fouled with 6.6 seconds left and down by a point.
Jones made the first to tie. On the second free throw, Moore was the only Duke player to even attempt to get the rebound. He was surrounded by four Tar Heels. Every other Duke player was far from the paint, back in a defensive position.
Jones (who at one point scored 15 straight points for Duke in this game and ended up with a game-high 28) made the first free throw to tie the contest at 96. But then he missed the seone cond long. The ball bounced deep into the paint and Moore leaped and got his right hand on it — the same hand he had broken earlier in the season. It required surgery, and Moore missed six straight games.
But the hand was fine, and the tip-out set up Duke for Jones’ last-second shot: an airball.
Just when double overtime looked imminent, however, Moore swooped in for the offensive rebound, made the layup and got swarmed by teammates as the rest of the Smith Center fell dead silent. The chance for a remarkable upset had vanished with Moore’s putback. When I walked out into the concourse, headed toward Duke’s locker room, I saw several UNC fans sobbing.
The airball and Moore’s ensuing score reminded me a little of Lorenzo Charles and the Dereck Whittenburg airball he turned into a dunk to win the 1983 NCAA championship for N.C. State. Charles’ was more spectacular and in a bigger situation, of course, but Moore’s won’t be forgotten soon, either.
“I didn’t even know it went in,” Moore said, “and then I saw everybody running at me.”
Moore half-heartedly tried to get away, but he was happily tackled by teammates as No. 7 Duke improved to 20-3.
Moore won two North Carolina state championships at Concord’s Cox Mill High — in one of those, his star teammate was Leaky Black, who played well for UNC Saturday. So he’s won a lot of big games before. But never anything quite like this one.
Moore’s shot, of course, will be the rare buzzer-beating game-winner in a Duke-UNC game that is remembered less than something that happened earlier.
That’s because Jones converted a crazy, purposely-missed free throw in the final seconds of regulation — a two-handed chest pass off the rim to himself, allowing him to make the basket to send the game to overtime at 84-all.
While I’ve seen something like Moore’s putback during a scrambled last few seconds win a basketball game dozens of times, I’ve never, ever seen a missed free throw like that.
Said Moore of Jones’ play, necessary because UNC coach Roy Williams made the correct call to foul Jones in the backcourt with the Tar Heels up 84-81 in the final seconds of regulation: “He’s one of the best passers we have. And obviously he’s the best point guard in the country, so for him to make that pass off the rim, and get it back to himself and hit the shot, that was big.”
Yes, I’d say so. But so was Moore’s game-winner. He finished with 17 points, 10 rebounds — and one legendary basket he’s going to remember 50 years from now.
This story was originally published February 8, 2020 at 11:38 PM with the headline "‘I’ll remember it the rest of my life.’ Duke’s Wendell Moore became a legend vs. UNC."
