the second half was played very closely, with neither team taking a substantial lead. with 3:16 to play, duke took a 60–55 lead on two made free throws by nolan smith. butler cut the lead to one point in the final minute and, after a missed kyle singler jump shot with 36 seconds remaining, got a chance to retake the lead. butler was unable to initiate their offense and stevens called a timeout to set up a play. a failed inbounds attempt and a timeout later, hayward missed a baseline fade-away jumper and brian zoubek came down with the rebound for duke. he was quickly fouled with less than 4 seconds remaining. hayward narrowly missed a desperation half-court shot as time expired, making the final margin 61–59.