WASHINGTON — There it was, plain as could be on the overhead scoreboard, orange numbering on a black background: As the closing seconds ticked away last night, Belmont was beating Duke.

Read that again, slowly: No. 15-seeded Belmont was beating No. 2 Duke. Belmont, the Atlantic Sun Conference school with zero NCAA tournament wins to its credit, was leading Duke, the Atlantic Coast Conference school with three national championships on its resume.

And yet it was not to be.

Using every last one of Gerald Henderson's 21 points, including the go-ahead basket with 11.9 seconds left, and one key steal by DeMarcus Nelson, Duke barely avoided what would have been a monumental upset, edging Belmont, 71-70, in the first round of the West Regional.

"The last two or three minutes, I was sitting there thinking, 'We're really in this game.' We were so close to winning," Belmont's Henry Harris said. "There's a bit of amazement in your brain, just sitting there: 'Wow!' "

Teeny, tiny Belmont was long past wondering whether one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history was possible. Turns out, so was mighty, mighty Duke.

"We wouldn't be human if it didn't," Duke guard Jon Scheyer said. "We knew the situation. There was so much pressure on us. Pressure to win. Ninety percent of the building wanted us to lose."

Instead, Duke (28-5) snapped a two-game tournament losing streak and advanced to face seventh-seed West Virginia tomorrow.

"Watching them on tape, they looked really good," said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who extended his record to 69 career tournament victories. "Watching them in person, they're even better."

And so the Bruins (25-9) stayed in the game, repeatedly clawing back from deficits as large as 10 points.

Duke led 42-35 at halftime and 51-41 in the second half when Belmont came back with a 9-0 run. Duke padded the margin again, but Belmont responded with an 8-0 spurt. Duke led 69-65 with 2:40 left, but Andy Wicke made a 3-pointer to cut it to one.

And after a Duke miss, Justin Hare grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and made both free throws to give Belmont the lead — the lead! — with 2:02 left in the game. It was 70-69, Belmont, right there for everyone to see, and the crowd was roaring.

"That was really the most exhilarating feeling that I've ever had coaching. That's when I thought we were going to go all the way," said Belmont coach Rick Byrd, whose team was routed by UCLA and Georgetown in its other NCAA appearances. "At first, you hope to be competitive. Then you hope, 'Don't beat us by 20.' And that never really happened. It became like a regular-season Atlantic Sun game, really."

Alas, on this night, on the verge of beating one of the sport's most storied programs, Belmont would not score again.

It would be Henderson's length-of-the-floor drive with 11.9 seconds left that erased Belmont's final lead.

Then, with Belmont inbounding the ball under its own basket, Alex Renfroe tried to throw a lob pass that was intercepted by ACC defensive player of the year Nelson. He missed at the line, Belmont got the rebound, and had one final chance to make history. The Bruins got the ball in safely this time, with 2.2 seconds left, and their leading scorer, Hare, got a good look at the basket from about 35 feet away.

"It felt good," Hare said later.

But the shot was a tad off. The ball bounced off the iron. Hare winced.

"We knew that on this night," Wicke said, "we could play with Duke."

WEST REGIONAL

AT WASHINGTON

WEST VIRGINIA 75, ARIZONA 65

Alex Ruoff scored 21 points, Da'Sean Butler had 19, and the seventh-seeded Mountaineers (25-10) took the lead for good on a 3-pointer by Ruoff with 17:43 left to beat the Wildcats (19-15).

XAVIER 73, GEORGIA 61

Derrick Brown had 19 points and 11 rebounds, and the third-seeded Musketeers (28-6) rallied from an 11-point, second-half deficit to beat the Bulldogs (17-17), who shot just 3 of 5 free throws, compared to 27 for 33 for Xavier.

PURDUE 90, BAYLOR 79

Keaton Grant scored 17 points and the Boilermakers (25-8) built a 19-point halftime lead, then cruised past the Bears (21-11) for their 10th straight victory in the first round since 1993 and a date with Xavier in tomorrow's second round.

At Anaheim, Calif.

UCLA 70, MISSISSIPPI VALLEY STATE 29

Freshman Kevin Love scored 20 points and the top-seeded Bruins (32-3) raced to a 41-16 halftime lead in routing the Delta Devils (17-16) to advance to a second-round game against Texas A&M tomorrow.

TEXAS A&M 67, BYU 62

Josh Carter scored 26 points and Joseph Jones added 10 points and 12 rebounds as the ninth-seeded Aggies (25-10) handed the Cougars (27-8) their sixth straight opening-round loss.

SOUTH REGIONAL

At Anaheim, Calif.

MARQUETTE 74, KENTUCKY 66

Jerel McNeal scored 20 points and Wesley Matthews hit eight free throws in the final 31 seconds to help the sixth-seeded Golden Eagles (25-9) hold off the Wildcats (18-13) and advance to the second round against third-seeded Stanford.

STANFORD 77, CORNELL 53

Kenny Brown scored 18 points and the Cardinal (27-7) used a 43-11 run bridging the first and second halves for a 58-23 lead and never looked back in ending the Big Red's (22-6) run of 16 straight victories.

AT DENVER

PITTSBURGH 82, ORAL ROBERTS 63

Levance Fields scored 23 points, Sam Young had 14 and the fourth-seeded Panthers (27-9) defeated the Golden Eagles (24-9) to reach the second round against fifth-seeded Michigan State tomorrow.

MICHIGAN STATE 72, TEMPLE 61

Raymar Morgan scored 15 points and the Spartans (26-8) held Dionte Christmas, the Owls' (21-13) leading scorer, to three points, 17 below his average, on 1-of-12 shooting.

MIDWEST REGIONAL

At Omaha, Neb.

KANSAS 85, PORTLAND STATE 61

Brandon Rush scored 18 points, Darrell Arthur had 17 and Mario Chalmers 16 as the top-seeded Jayhawks (32-3) led all the way against the Vikings (23-10) to advance to the second round against eighth-seeded UNLV tomorrow.

UNLV 71, KENT STATE 58

Joe Darger scored 18 points and the Runnin' Rebels (27-7) tied an NCAA tournament record by holding the Flashes (28-7) to just 10 points in the first half to take a 21-point lead at intermission.

KANSAS STATE 80, USC 67

Michael Beasley had 21 points and 11 rebounds, redshirt freshman Bill Walker scored 22 points and the 11th-seeded Wildcats (21-11) defeated the sixth-seeded Trojans (21-12) to reach the second round against third-seeded Wisconsin.

WISCONSIN 71, CAL STATE FULLERTON 56

Brian Butch scored 14 points and the third-seeded Badgers (29-4) overcame Josh Akognon's 31 points to beat the 11th-seeded Titans (24-9), playing in the tournament for the first time since 1978

EAST REGIONAL

AT DENVER

NOTRE DAME 68, GEORGE MASON 50

Luke Harangody had 18 points and 14 rebounds, powering the fifth-seeded Irish (25-7) to their first tournament victory in five years with a rout of the 12th-seeded Patriots (23-11), who had two starters left from their magical run to the Final Four in 2006.