In the final match, performed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, NC State led at halftime with a score of 33–25. Houston was hampered by foul trouble that plagued star Clyde Drexler, who picked up four first half fouls. In the second half, the Cougars came out with another wind and established control of the game, eventually taking a seven-point lead.
However, things weren’t all good for Houston. Since the game was played in Albuquerque, players needed to deal with the city’s mile-high altitude. The Cougars’ star center, Akeem Olajuwon, had problems adjusting to the environment and tired quickly, needing to test out of this match multiple times so that he could put on an oxygen mask and then recover. Together with Olajuwon on the seat, Houston head coach Guy Lewis determined that in order to safeguard the lead and the health of his huge man at precisely the exact same time, the Cougars needed to begin slowing the game down.
Yet more, this allowed the Wolfpack to go back to their standby strategy of extending the game. Houston’s free throw shooting was quite suspicious entering the match, which functioned greatly in NC State’s favor as they were able to 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 freshman guard Alvin Franklin bring the ball up the court. The Wolfpack defenders would let the Cougars use their slowdown strategy of passing around. When 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 from the enormity of the second; NC State believed that the comparatively inexperienced Franklin couldn’t resist the strain of going to the line together with the tournament at stake and knowing that fifty million viewers were tuned into watch the match. The concept proved right as Franklin failed to convert the Wolfpack grabbed the rebound. Valvano called timeout with 44 seconds left and drew up a play for senior guard Dereck Whittenburg through 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 chance to close out the match. Lewis made a decision to move in the man-to-man shield his team was running the entire match to a half court zone trap defense. The Wolfpack, who weren’t anticipating the defensive modification, were forced to deviate and began passing the ball around just to maintain the Cougars from stealing it. Houston nearly got the turnover it had been searching for when Whittenburg made an errant pass to Gannon which Drexler nearly came away with before the sophomore regained control of the ball. The ball eventually wound up in the palms of protector Sidney Lowe, who lent it to forward and fellow senior Thurl Bailey at the corner.
Trying to keep the ball going, as he was double teamed when he obtained the pass, Bailey appeared back toward Whittenburg, who was approximately thirty feet from the hoop near midcourt. Bailey threw what Whittenburg would call a”poor fundamental” overhanded pass that Houston’s Benny Anders, guarding Whittenburg on the drama, was able to steal. Now, Whittenburg hearkened back to his high school days with Morgan Wootten at DeMatha Catholic High School, where he had been taught to always catch the basketball with both handson. If Whittenburg hadn’t tried to do so in this case, Anders may have gotten the steal and a game-winning breakaway layup. In college basketball in the moment, the game clock continued to operate after a made field goal, and the Wolfpack likely would not have had time to inbound the ball. As it was, Anders knocked the ball out of Whittenburg’s hands, but Whittenburg quickly regained control.
The clock, meanwhile, had ticked down to five minutes and Whittenburg was still standing a significant distance from the goal. Once he regained control, Whittenburg turned and launched a desperation shot, later claimed by Whittenburg to be a pass, to attempt to win the match for NC State. The shot’s trajectory took it to the front of the basket where Olajuwon was covering Wolfpack centre Lorenzo Charles. As he watched the shooter, Olajuwon said he knew the shot was going to come up short but he did not wish to select the ball too early due to the potential for goaltending. Charles took advantage of this indecision by Olajuwon and went up for the atmosphere balland, in one movement, he scored the go-ahead points with a two-handed dunk. The final second ticked off the clock prior to Houston could inbound the ball, and with that, the game ended, and the Wolfpack were the winners.
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