That No. 15-seed Belmont took No. 2-seed Duke down to the wire or that Duke pulled out the 71-70 first-round NCAA Tournament victory.

The Devils (28-5) were that close to exiting the NCAA Tournament in the first round for a second straight season.

Instead, Duke sophomore Gerald Henderson swooped in with the winning play to give Duke a spot in Saturday's 2:10 p.m. second-round game against West Virginia, a 75-65 winner over Arizona.

Finding a worthy opponent in a quick and veteran Belmont team, Duke trailed 70-69 with about 30 seconds left in the game when Belmont's Alex Renfroe, who scored 15 points, drove the lane.

Renfroe missed the shot, and Henderson ripped down the rebound and took off.

Near the 3-point line, Henderson saw daylight and attacked, elevating with his 40-plus-inch vertical leap and finishing with a pretty finger roll above Belmont's defenders for the eventual winner with 11.9 seconds left.

"I knew we needed a two, so I took it to the basket strong," said Henderson, who had 21 points, seven rebounds and five steals.

Belmont star Justin Hare missed an off-balance shot on Belmont's end, but when Duke's Greg Paulus and Renfroe went after the loose ball, a jump ball was called with 4.0 seconds left.

It was Belmont's possession.

Throwing the ball inbounds under his own hoop, Renfroe was trying to throw a lob pass to Shane Dansby, but Duke senior DeMarcus Nelson fought through a screen and stole the pass.

Nelson was fouled and had a chance to give Duke a three-point cushion with a free throw and bonus. But the 60.7 percent free-throw shooter missed the front end, giving Belmont one last look at the hoop with 2.2 seconds left.

Hare had hit many clutch shots as a Bruin, but his prayer from just inside the halfcourt line glanced off the rim.

"You won't hear any of our players say we overlooked them," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who won his Division I-best 69th NCAA Tournament game. "Watching [the Bruins] on tape, they looked really good. In person, they're even better."

Duke hasn't often had to fight for its life at the end of games this season, and the stakes were high. The Bruins, three-time defending Atlantic Sun champions, were looking to become just the fifth No. 15 to beat a No. 2 in NCAA Tournament history.

The Bruins played like a team that already had seen the dark side while getting whipped in first-round games by UCLA in 2006 and Georgetown in 2007.

They played fearless ball. It showed after Duke's Jon Scheyer, who had 13 points, hit a huge 3 and was fouled with 7:12 left to give Duke a 63-58 lead.

Duke might have parlayed that into a run to put Belmont down for good, but the Bruins, spurred on by a pro-Belmont crowd that included country music star Vince Gill, refused to go quietly.

Duke caught a break when Belmont's Andy Wicke -- who had scored 11, including three 3-pointers in the first half -- picked up his fourth foul with 12:40 left and had to sit.

Wicke was quiet until he hit a 3 with 2:26 left to cut Duke's lead to one at 69-68. Hare's two free throws with 2:02 left gave the Bruins their final lead.

Belmont wasn't playing against type when it ignored the 3-point line early in the game. The Bruins were taking advantage of the Devils' preoccupation with guarding the 3-point line and the Devils' ingrained need to deny passing lanes and play help defense.

Trailing 17-13 with 11:56 left in the first half, Belmont already had scored on a drive-and-pop jumper, on the offensive glass, on another drive and on a backdoor cut.

Also Paulus, who scored 12 points with five rebounds, lost Hare on a backdoor cut with less than seven minutes left in the half. Hare missed the layup, and Paulus was fouled grabbing the rebound.

As the teams walked the other way for the free throws, Krzyzewski screamed red-faced at Paulus and company for failing to guard the backdoor.

The Bruins also pushed the Devils away from the basket, daring them to drive and still getting a hand up on shots.

Krzyzewski, still suffering from laryngitis after the game, said he felt his players stayed calm throughout and that the team never failed to offer reassurance during tense moments.

"We've been in situations like that all year, a big crowd and lot of people cheering against us," Henderson said. "We had to come together."

Duke hasn't leaned too heavily on any one player, so Krzyzewski confidently tapped Henderson, letting him initiate plays as much as possible down the stretch.

Henderson's layup at the end won the game, helped Duke advance after it looked like it would not and ended Belmont's winning streak at 13 games.

But it didn't deflate the Bruins.

"That one-point loss, it's unfair in a way because it doesn't measure the effort our kids put in and the mental toughness they had during the game," Belmont coach Rick Byrd said. "And let me say this, Duke is the premiere program of the last 20-25 years, and they don't win accidentally. They made two or three huge plays down at the end."