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WINSTON-SALEM -- The entire college basketball season continued to play out in Joel Coliseum on another wild night in the Twin City.

Wake Forest, only a week removed from the top ranking in the country, took down No. 1 Duke on the same floor on a sandlot play that proved to be the Blue Devils' undoing. After a brilliant Duke comeback that left Wake gasping, the Deacs ran a simple inbounds play that confounded the Blue Devils and produced a 70-68 win Wednesday night that unleashed a tie-dyed wave.

A game that left both teams exhausted ended when Wake sophomore James Johnson rose above the fray and banked in the winning shot over three Blue Devils as time expired on Duke's No. 1 ranking.

Dino Gaudio, who had a week to draw up the victory, said the final play wasn't even in the team's playbook. He credited the fans. In fact, in the wild moments after the buzzer sounded, and security threw back students trying to rush the floor, Gaudio himself walked into the sea of fans and invited them all onto the court.

And then he grabbed a microphone.

"Everyone!" he said, his voice bouncing off the rafters of a gym that has become the center of the sport. "Once again, the sixth man was the difference in the game! Thanks for coming out!"

That explained things as much as anything else. On a night when Jeff Teague gave the Wake offense over to Ish Smith, on a night when David Weaver scored as many points as starter Chas McFarland, on a night when Johnson couldn't be bothered to go to the floor to save the game with 17 seconds to play, Wake won.

Wake won because at the other end of the floor, Johnson took an inbounds pass from L.D. Williams and went to the rim. Duke seemed puzzled by the simple play, failed to make even a futile effort to stop it, then walked away with the No. 1 ranking being trampled by the Wake fans.

The final gasp came at the end of a perplexing game for both teams. Wake appeared to be running away with it in front of a frenzied crowd hoping for redemption from last week's homecourt loss to Virginia Tech. That game ended Wake's brief hold on the No. 1 ranking and led to an entire week of practicing for a game that loomed as a season in and of itself. That rival Duke came to town with the No. 1 ranking only seven days later was not lost on anyone.

Wake came in ranked sixth, the result of the one loss, and then Duke rolled atop the polls. From the outset, Wake seemed faster, deeper and more talented than the Blue Devils.

A win by the Deacs seemed a foregone conclusion. The top-ranked Devils saw Wake sprint away to a 13-point, second-half lead, then wilt in its own heat. In a game Duke had no business staging a comeback, the Devils did just that. Down 61-48 with 8:50 to play, Duke went on a 20-7 run to tie the game with 11 seconds to play.

Duke tied it on a play drawn up by Mike Krzyzewski. At the other end, after a flurry of desperate Wake shots bounced away, a whistle blew and the crowd held its breath. Henderson had been called for walking. Wake had another shot.

The end came quickly for Duke, which had inherited the No. 1 ranking after North Carolina vacated it the first week in January, after Pittsburgh vacated it the second week in January and after Wake vacated it the very next week. Duke's reign will end when the new poll comes out next Monday.

The forlorn Duke players sat deep in their lockers Wednesday night, nodding their heads as the same questions were asked over and over. How did it happen? How did it feel? How did Johnson get wide open on the final play with the game, control of the conference and the top ranking in the nation at stake? Krzyzewski said it was because Duke missed a switch.

Nolan Smith, the Duke defender with the role of making that switch, took the fall. The burden of a final play was too much for Duke, as the burden of No. 1 had been to much for every team that has held it so far.

The recent run of toppled teams will leave the rival Big East with a clear lane to the top now, and Krzyzewski said the trend will continue. He said the two leagues are destined to settle everything this spring after the two leagues settle things among themselves. Duke came to Winston-Salem on a foggy night and lost its way.

There's a precedent for it, and there's no reason to think it won't happen again and again. A college basketball season that seemed tame when the month of January began became a beast before the month of Wednesdays ended.

North Carolina is no longer the No. 1 team in the nation. Neither is Wake Forest. And after another wild night in Joel, neither is Duke.

Contact Ed Hardin at 373-7069 or ed.hardin@news-record.com