The Daily Tar Heel
Printing news. Raising hell. Since 1893.
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2025 Newsletters Latest print issue

We keep you informed.

Help us keep going. Donate Today.
The Daily Tar Heel

Looking back at Marvin Williams' game-winner against Duke 20 years later

marvin-williams-cropped.JPG

Marvin Williams (24) makes a three-pointer during a game against Vermont on December 21, 2004 in the Dean E. Smith Center. UNC won 93-65. Photo Courtesy of UNC Athletics.

Roy Williams gets chills just talking about it. 

The date was March 6, 2005, when No. 2 North Carolina trailed No. 6 Duke, 73-71, with 19.4 seconds remaining. UNC guard Raymond Felton was at the foul line with a pair of free throws and the chance to complete a 9-point comeback in the final three minutes of regulation. 

Felton took the first shot. Nothing but net. 

He got the ball back for the second attempt, took two right-handed dribbles, spun the basketball in his left hand and let the game-tying free throw fly. 

Instead, Felton’s shot sprung off the back of the rim and into a swarm of arms vying for the rebound. The ball popped out in the scuffle. 

It glanced off of Tar Heel center Sean May, bouncing toward UNC’s bench. Then first-year forward Marvin Williams grabbed it near the right block. In one motion, he elevated toward the basket, released a shot, and was fouled.

His attempt banked off the glass and fell through the net as the referee's whistle blew. 

The Dean E. Smith Center exploded. 

“It was like the roof came off. Literally, off the top of the Smith Center,” Jackie Manuel, a former guard on the 2004-05 team, recalled. “The moment was surreal.” 

Marvin Williams’ game-winning shot not only completed UNC’s improbable comeback but gave Roy Williams his first career win over Duke, 75-73, as the head coach of North Carolina.

“The Smith Center, at that moment, is the loudest I've ever heard it in my entire life,” Roy Williams said. “And that’s a memory that sticks with me forever.” 

After sinking the ensuing free throw, North Carolina defended Duke for the remaining 17 seconds and forced two missed shots to seal the game. 

UNC’s victory was triumphant. Not because it was the first win against Duke in Roy Williams' tenure at North Carolina, but because of what it meant for the seniors playing in their final home game.

Marvin-Williams-2.JPG
Marvin Williams (24) throws the ball during a game against Duke in the Dean E. Smith Center. Photo Courtesy of UNC Athletics.

A senior group, including Manuel, Jawad Williams, Melvin Scott and others endured an 8-20 record their first season at UNC. They lost to the Blue Devils seven times during their career, winning only once before the 2005 game. For them, this win over Duke wasn’t just another rivalry game but cemented the fact that UNC basketball was back on the national stage. 

“That moment was kind of like the icing on the cake of 'We're here now,'” Manuel said. “We reached a point of what we all dreamed about, and we can celebrate not just as a team, but as a Carolina family, the Carolina fan base, that we were back.”

After the game, North Carolina cut down the nets in the Smith Center. Williams had asked the team if they wanted to the game prior, when UNC clinched a share in the ACC title, but the seniors voted against it “because they were focused on beating Duke."

This added an extra burden for Roy Williams in the days leading up to the game.  

“That’s the most pressure I ever felt, was Senior Days,” Williams admitted. “Because I wanted those guys to go out with a win.” 

Thanks to Marvin Williams' heroics they did. UNC captured the ACC title, and the win became a defining moment in the careers of the Tar Heel seniors. 

“I'm so thankful and fortunate that we all had a chance to experience what that feels like and what that felt like to be in that building, playing in a big-time game, and be able to come on the winning side of that game,” Manuel said. “There's a lot of people that play this game, and they can't say that my last home game ‘We won.'" 

To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.

Although UNC went on to win the 2005 national championship that season, it's Marvin Williams' game-winner that lives in UNC-Duke infamy and still gives Roy Williams goosebumps 20 years later.