In the final match, played in Albuquerque, New Mexico, NC State led at halftime by a score of 33–25. Houston was hampered by foul trouble that plagued celebrity Clyde Drexler, who picked up four first half fouls. From the second halfof the Cougars came out with another wind and established control of the game, eventually taking a seven-point lead.
But, things weren’t all good for Houston. Since the game was played in Albuquerque, players had to take care of the city’s mile-high elevation. The Cougars’ star centre, Akeem Olajuwon, had problems adjusting to the surroundings and tired quickly, needing to test from this match multiple times so that he could put on an oxygen mask and recover. With Olajuwon on the bench, Houston head coach Guy Lewis decided that so as to safeguard the lead and the health of his big man at the same period, the Cougars needed to begin slowing down the game.
Yet more, this enabled the Wolfpack to return to their standby strategy of extending the game. Houston’s free throw shooting was quite suspicious entering the match, which worked greatly in NC State’s favor since they could rally back and even the score at 52 in the final two minutes. On what would be the final Houston ownership, Valvano called for his players to back away and let guard Alvin Franklin bring the ball up the court. The Wolfpack defenders would allow the Cougars use their lag strategy of passing it around. Once the ball got back to Franklin he was to be fouled immediately. With 1:05 left, the freshman was fouled and sent to the line to get a one-and-one. The idea to filthy Franklin sprung in the enormity of this moment; NC State thought that the relatively inexperienced Franklin couldn’t withstand the strain of going to the line with the tournament at stake and understanding fifty million viewers were tuned into watch the match. The theory was correct as Franklin failed to convert the Wolfpack grabbed the rally. Valvano called timeout with 44 seconds left and drew up a play for senior guard Dereck Whittenburg during the timeout, which required the team to pass him the ball with ten seconds left on the clock so he could take the last shot.
Houston had a defensive stop so they could get another opportunity to close out the match. Lewis decided to move from the man-to-man defense his team had been running the entire game to a half court zone trap defense. The Wolfpack, who were not expecting the defensive modification, were forced to deviate and started passing the ball around just to keep the Cougars from slipping it. Houston almost obtained the turnover it was looking for when Whittenburg made an errant pass to Gannon which Drexler almost came away with before the sophomore recovered control of the ball. The ball finally wound up in the hands of guard Sidney Lowe, who lent it to forward and fellow senior Thurl Bailey at the corner.
Attempting to keep the ball going, as he had been double teamed as soon as he received the pass, Bailey looked back toward Whittenburg, who had been roughly thirty feet from the hoop near midcourt. Bailey threw what Whittenburg would later call a”poor basic” overhanded pass which Houston’s Benny Anders, guarding Whittenburg about the play, was in position to steal. At this point, Whittenburg hearkened back to his high school days with Morgan Wootten in DeMatha Catholic High School, where he had been taught to always catch the basketball with both hands. If Whittenburg hadn’t tried to do this in this case, Anders may have gotten the slip and a game-winning breakaway layup. In college basketball at the time, the game clock continued to run following a made field goal, and the Wolfpack probably would not have had time to inbound the ball. Since it was, Anders knocked the ball out of Whittenburg’s hands, but Whittenburg immediately regained control.
The clock, meanwhile, had ticked down to five seconds and Whittenburg was standing a substantial distance from the objective. After he regained command, Whittenburg turned and started a desperation shot, afterwards claimed by Whittenburg for a pass, to attempt to win the match for NC State. The shot’s trajectory took it on the front of the basket where Olajuwon was covering Wolfpack centre Lorenzo Charles. As he noticed the shooter, Olajuwon said he understood the shot was going to come up short but he also did not wish to go for the ball too early due to the potential for goaltending. Charles took advantage of the indecision from Olajuwon and went up for the atmosphere ball, and, in 1 motion, he scored the go-ahead points using a two-handed dip. The final second ticked off the clock prior to Houston could inbound the ball, and that, the game ended, and the Wolfpack were the winners.
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