RALEIGH, N.C.  — It’s one of the most lasting images from the NCAA basketball tournament.

A buzzer-beating two-handed dunk by muscular forward Lorenzo Charles gives heavy underdog North Carolina State a stunning national championship game win in 1983 versus powerhouse Houston — known as Phi Slamma Jamma. Wolfpack coach Jim Valvano spills onto the court, scrambling for someone to hug.

Charles, 47, the hero from that memorable game, was killed Monday when an empty bus he was driving for Elite Coach crashed along Interstate 40 in Raleigh, said general manager Brad Jackson.

Charles grabbed Dereck Whittenburg’s 30-foot shot and dunked it to give the Wolfpack the 54-52 win over the Cougars, led by stars Clyde Drexler and Hakeem Olajuwon. It was N.C. State’s second national title and gave Charles a place in school history.

Whittenburg was despondent when discussing his teammate and friend with The Associated Press.

“It’s just an awful day,” Whittenburg said. “An awful, awful day.”

That game in Albuquerque, N.M., capped an improbable run to the championship. N.C. State entered the NCAA tournament with a 17-10 record, having beaten Virginia to win the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament and an automatic berth into the national field. No one expected much.

“It’s still kind of amazing to me that … people are still talking about it,” Charles said in an excerpt from his comments about the championship game on his N.C. State Web page. “I remember when (it) first happened, I figured I would have my 15 minutes of fame and that would be it. Here we are and it is still a conversational piece. I don’t really think that was the only great Final Four finish that has been played since then, but for some reason people just single out that game and talk about it. Maybe because it was such a David and Goliath thing.”

Police released little about the one-vehicle crash that took Charles’ life. Video shows the windshield broken out with tree limbs sticking through the window frame.

The rear wheels of the bus were on an embankment, leaving the right front tire elevated from the road.