One Shot Falls, Other Doesn’t; Duke Wins

Four years of hot-blooded competition between the Duke and Georgia Tech classes of 1986 was delivered by that arbiter named fate to a second-string Tech sophomore guard Sunday. Here kid, you decide it.

The kid was Craig Neal and he did. His 20-footer clattered off the rim in the closing seconds, allowing the Blue Devils to escape with a 68-67 victory, take the ACC tournament championship and enter the NCAA tournament as the top-seeded team.

Georgia Tech Coach Bobby Cremins, took it in stride. Neal wasn’t so sure about his old coach, at Washington, Ind. High School, though.

That was his father, Stan. You know how those guys are.

“The only thing I’m going to regret is talking to my dad on the phone,” Neal said later, grinning. “He’ll just say I choked. Adam’s apple.”

“You didn’t choke,” said teammate Bruce Dalrymple. “You hit the rim. If you’d have missed the rim, I’d have said you choked.”

So ended the rivalry, for the moment and unless they meet again in the NCAA tournament, forever.

The two classes have been eyeing each other since they arrived on their respective campuses four years ago. They were the products of two of the nation’s top recruiting efforts, Duke’s group of Mark Alarie, Johnny Dawkins, Jay Bilas and David Henderson, Tech’s Mark Price and John Salley. Dawkins watched as Price took rookie of the year honors, and several after that, and grumbled about it.

Sunday, with each class having grown up to turn its school into a national power, they got to play it off: Duke, the nation’s No. 1 team, against Georgia Tech, reigning ACC tournament champion and the nation’s pre-season No. 1 pick.

Score another one for the Blue Devils, who are more together right now. For all Cremins’ worries that the chemistry just isn’t there this time, the Yellowjackets went down hard. They rallied from a nine-point deficit in the second half, and a five-pointer in the last 5:52 to twice take the lead.

Duke found itself behind by a point twice in the last two minutes. It needed two big shots, one each by its stars, Dawkins and Alarie.

Dawkins’ was a drive into the lane, followed by a leap through the air, a double-clutch and then a 10-foot jumper that dropped cleanly.

“The timeout before that, I told Johnny it was time to take over,” Alarie said. “He certainly wasn’t having a big game. I said ‘It’s time for you to shine.’ ”

Dawkins shone. Duke led, 64-63, with 1:35 left.

At the other end, however, the Blue Devils, who pride themselves on their tough man-to-man defense, broke down. Neal beat one defender outside and drove all the way to the basket without encountering any more Dukies. His layup dropped with 1:03 left and Georgia Tech was ahead, 65-64.

Duke hit them right back, on Alarie’s eight-foot jumper from the baseline.

“I shot-faked and whoever was there, either Salley or (Tom) Hammonds went for it,” Alarie said. “So I felt confident. I didn’t think they could get any pressure on it.

“I really hadn’t felt too confident shooting the last few days. I don’t know if it was the fatigue or the pressure. That time I felt confident though. It was one of the few.”

Duke led, 66-65 with :44 left. Cremins set up a play to go inside to Salley or Hammonds.

Duke shut it off. Price, the point guard, the All-American candidate, the best outside shooter in the ACC, was supposed to try to penetrate or get the open jumper.

Dawkins, with help from the other guard, Tommy Amaker, cut that off, too. That left Neal open in the corner. Price pitched it to him and is today being second-guessed all over ACC-Land, for having another poor performance in a big game (6 of 18 from the floor) and for backing away from the big shot Sunday.

“They were double-teaming me,” Price said. “I have all the confidence in Craig. If the situation happened again, I’d give it to him again.”

Cremins said: “I thought we got a great shot. Obviously, we didn’t want Neal shooting a shot like that but he had to shoot it. He shot, he missed. It’s all part of the game. He can make that shot. I wish he had put it on the floor hard one time, but he can make that shot. Maybe Mark should have shot it but he made a great pass.”

Neal’s shot was very short, just tipping the front rim. Dawkins rebounded it, was fouled with four seconds left and made both halves of the one-and-one. With :01 left, the Blue Devils let Price through for a last 15-footer.

And so Duke, No. 1 in the nation, enters the NCAA tournament seeded No. 1, too. Cremins was asked later if the Devils had something the Yellowjackets were missing.

“One point,” Salley muttered.