In the final game, 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 half, the Cougars came out with a second wind and established control of the game, eventually taking a seven-point lead.
However, things were not all great for Houston. Considering that the match was played Albuquerque, players had to take care of the town’s mile-high altitude. The Cougars’ star center, Akeem Olajuwon, had difficulties adjusting to the surroundings and tired quickly, having to check out of the game multiple times so that he could put on an oxygen mask and then recuperate. With Olajuwon on the bench, Houston head coach Guy Lewis decided that in order to protect the lead and the health of his big man in the exact same time, the Cougars needed to start slowing the game down.
Once again, this allowed the Wolfpack to go back to their standby strategy of extending the game. Houston’s free throw shooting was quite suspect entering the match, which functioned heavily in NC State’s favor as they could rally back and even the score at 52 in the final two minutes. On what would be the last Houston possession, Valvano known for his players to back off and allow guard Alvin Franklin bring the ball up the court. The Wolfpack defenders would allow the Cougars use their lag strategy of passing 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 thought to foul Franklin sprung from the enormity of this second; NC State believed that the comparatively inexperienced Franklin could not withstand the pressure of going to the line with the championship at stake and understanding fifty million viewers were tuned into watch the match. The theory was correct as Franklin failed to convert and the Wolfpack caught the rally. Valvano called timeout with 44 seconds left and drew up a play for mature defender Dereck Whittenburg during the timeout, which required the group to pass him the ball ten seconds left on the clock so that he could take the last shot.
Houston needed a defensive stop so they could get another opportunity to close out the game. Lewis made a decision to move from the man-to-man shield his team had been running the whole match to a half court zone trap defense. The Wolfpack, who weren’t expecting the defensive modification, were made to deviate and started passing the ball around just to maintain the Cougars from stealing it. Houston almost obtained the turnover it had been searching for if Whittenburg made an errant pass to Gannon which Drexler nearly came away with before the sophomore recovered control of the ball. The ball eventually wound up at the hands of protector Sidney Lowe, who gave it to forwards and fellow mature Thurl Bailey at the corner.
Attempting to keep the ball moving, as he was double teamed when he obtained the pass, Bailey appeared back toward Whittenburg, that had been roughly thirty feet from the hoop near midcourt. Bailey threw what Whittenburg would call a”poor basic” overhanded pass that 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 at DeMatha Catholic High School, where he was taught to always catch the basketball with both handson. If Whittenburg hadn’t attempted to do this in this circumstance, Anders might have gotten the slip and a game-winning breakaway layup. In college basketball at the time, the game clock continued to operate after a made field goal, and the Wolfpack likely wouldn’t have had time to inbound the ball. Since it was, Anders knocked the ball from 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. Once he regained command, Whittenburg turned and launched a desperation shot, afterwards claimed by Whittenburg for a pass, to try and win the game for NC State. The shot’s trajectory took it to the front of the basket at which Olajuwon was covering Wolfpack center Lorenzo Charles. As he watched the shot, Olajuwon said he understood the shot was likely to come up short but he did not want to go for the ball too early because of the potential for goaltending. Charles took advantage of this indecision from Olajuwon and proceeded up for the atmosphere ball, and, in one motion, he scored the go-ahead points using a two-handed dip. The last second ticked off the clock before Houston could inbound the ball, and with that, the game ended, and the Wolfpack were the winners.
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