"Ben was awesome!"

"Ben's the man!"

McCauley and his wife, Lynn, rarely miss an N.C. State men's basketball game, home or away, or the chance to cheer for their son, Ben. But they were in West Newton, Pa., on Sunday and weren't able to even see the Wake Forest game live, using TiVo to record it.

"When I saw the text messages," Jack McCauley said, "I knew something big happened."

What the McCauleys had missed was the most dramatic, spine-tingling play of Ben McCauley's career. His left-handed follow slam of Gavin Grant's missed shot, with barely one-tenth of a second left, gave the Wolfpack a 67-65 victory over the Demon Deacons at the RBC Center.

The Pack called a timeout after a driving basket by Wake's Ishmael Smith tied the score with 5.2 seconds to play. Grant, who scored 15 of his 17 points in the second half, took the inbounds pass and sped down the court, taking a 3-pointer from the right of the key over Harvey Hale with 2.7 seconds to play.

"I was thinking, 'Gavin can make those shots, I've seen him make those,' " Ben McCauley said. "I thought, 'Why not go up and see if you can get the tip-in.' No one boxed me out. I think their whole team thought the game was over."

Or headed to overtime. But McCauley came bolting down the lane, rising high over State guard Javi Gonzalez, cupping the ball with his left hand and ramming it through the rim.

"He caught it off the rim something vicious," Hale said.

For a moment or two, McCauley stood alone on the right side of the court, motionless, staring into the thundering crowd.

"I was so excited," he said. "I was like trying to replay everything that just happened and make sure it was real."

Soon mobbed by teammates, he then was anxious as the referees checked the replay on a monitor.

"I was kind of peeking over ... and saw the ref kind of stalling," McCauley said. "Then he said it was good.

"That's something you see on [ESPN's] top 10 [plays] and you think that'd be great to get a tip-in dunk for the winner. Sure enough, I did. It's awesome."

In Pennsylvania, McCauley's parents soon had the TV on and fast-forwarded to the good part. And the winning basket wasn't McCauley's only contribution for the Pack (14-7, 3-4 ACC).

McCauley scored all 11 of his points in the last 10:32, beginning with a drive and basket with the Demon Deacons (13-7, 3-4) leading 48-39. About three minutes later, with Wake leading 54-47, McCauley converted a 3-point play on another hard drive.

In the last four minutes, McCauley hit four straight free throws. He also picked up floor burns on a loose-ball play after a Wake miss, flipping the ball to Gonzalez, who fed J.J. Hickson for a fastbreak reverse jam.

Hickson's dunk gave the Pack its first lead of the game, 62-61, with 2:58 left. But the freshman center, who had his eighth double-double of the season (10 points, 14 rebounds), later missed two free throws with 13.4 seconds left and State leading 65-63.

Smith then answered for Wake. Then came McCauley.

Grant's darting steal and layup in the final seconds beat Miami in overtime. State also topped Villanova, Davidson and Florida State in the final seconds.

"We make games exciting," NCSU coach Sidney Lowe said.

The Pack overcame 30 percent shooting in the first half. It got a needed lift off the bench from reserve Trevor Ferguson and effectively used a zone in the second half to slow the Deacs, who have lost 10 straight ACC road games and 19 of the past 20.

"We played hard, with a lot of heart," Wake Forest coach Dino Gaudio said. "On the last play, I thought we did a good job defending it. Obviously, we didn't do a good job of boxing out."

McCauley said he would soon call his father to tell him, "You missed a good one, Dad."

Ol' Dad missed it because of work but quickly caught up.

"Ben's play kind of capsulized his whole season," Jack McCauley said by phone. "I kept telling him if he kept working hard good things would happen, and it did.

"The look on his face after it, standing like a rock, a statue ... it was like he was trying to capture the moment for the rest of his life. It was like, 'Wow, this is what it's all about.' "