1998: It was supposed to be Trajan Langdon’s night. The Cincinnati Bearcats had other ideas.

Originally published on Nov. 29, 1998.

The Cincinnati Bearcats knocked one out of the park Saturday night, and by doing so they knocked off the No. 1 team in college basketball.

Using a play the 15th-ranked Bearcats call "the home run," Melvin Levett hit a grand slam with one second left, a dunk that gave Cincinnati a 77-75 victory over top-ranked Duke in the championship game of the Carrs Great Alaska Shootout.

Cincinnati's victory came at the expense of hometown hero Trajan Langdon, the Duke guard who was guarding Levett.

"Way back in conditioning I put his picture in my locker, and it's not because I like him, " Levett said. "… I took it out of one of those magazines because he's my competition and they're our competition.

"He's the guy we had to shut down to win."

And the Bearcats did just that. Langdon scored 13 points, eight below his average, and sat for four minutes after getting his fourth foul midway through the second half.

With a sold-out Sullivan Arena crowd of 8,700 cheering almost exclusively for Langdon and the Blue Devils, it was more of a road game than a neutral-court game for Cincinnati.

"To come here in Trajan Langdon's house …" Levett said. "… It's a great victory."

Levett's winning basket came after a long inbounds pass from Ryan Fletcher to Kenyon Martin. Martin, whose job on the play is to look for a guard cutting to the basket or take the shot himself, fed Levett near the free-throw line. Levett, a 6-foot-3 guard, made a lightning-quick move to finish the play with a dunk.

"We practice this play every day for this type of situation, " Martin said. "My job is to just go get the ball; no matter what, I have to get it. I can't worry about fouling or anything. I have to get the ball."

Cincinnati (4-0) executed the play perfectly, leaving Duke (5-1) with one second to execute its own winning play.

The Blue Devils had the right idea — a jumper by William Avery, the tournament's MVP who scored 30 points against Cincinnati. Avery made the shot, but his release came a fraction of a second after the buzzer sounded.

That triggered an emotional celebration by Cincinnati, while the Blue Devils watched in stunned silence.

Martin, a 6-foot-8 center, sat down on the bench and sobbed, and later took a Bearcats banner from someone in the crowd and held it atop his head. When he was named to the all-tournament team, the sobs began all over.

"With all the stuff we've been through, this is just a big pressure release, " Martin said.

The stuff Cincinnati's been through this month — Saturday night not included — hasn't been pretty.

The NCAA slapped the Bearcats with a two-year probation earlier this month for rules violations. Then the Bearcats opened the Shootout with an effort against Southern Utah that was deemed so horrendous by coach Bob Huggins that they spent a good portion of Thanksgiving paying for their mistakes in a grueling practice.

It was Duke that made all of the mistakes in Saturday's first half. The Blue Devils committed 11 turnovers, including five on six consecutive possessions that helped Cincinnati build a 21-11 lead.

The Bearcats led by as many as 19 points before settling for a 45-35 halftime lead.

"Certainly they were the better team, " Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "They deserved the game."

Beth Bragg is the ADN sports editor. This story was first  published on Nov. 29, 1998.