Dave Zinkoff, the public address announcer, began announcing Chamberlain's point total after each of his baskets.[38] With ten minutes to play in the game, Warriors forward Tom Meschery sensed the team concept breaking down. The team's offense had shifted to getting Chamberlain the ball and then stopping and watching instead of cutting and moving without the ball.[48] Chamberlain needed 25 points with eight minutes remaining to reach 100, a rate equivalent to 150 points in a full game.[49] He scored his 79th point with 7:51 left, breaking his own record and sending the crowd into a frenzy. The 4,124 spectators screamed, "Give it to Wilt! Give it to Wilt!"[22] After he reached 80, the crowd yelled for 100. Chamberlain thought, "Man, these people are tough. I'm tired. I've got 80 points and no one has ever scored 80." The Warriors continued giving Chamberlain the ball.[50] Warrior Al Attles later explained, "We wanted that Wilt got the record, because we all liked him." Attles himself led by example, passing up on an easy layup so that Chamberlain could score points 88 and 89, five minutes before the end.[22]
With six minutes remaining, the Knicks began intentionally fouling any Warrior except Chamberlain, keeping the ball out of the center's hands.[22][51][52] New York also began moving the ball slowly and using as much of the shot clock as possible to leave fewer opportunities for him to score.[53] Effectively, they played the opposite of what a normal club would do if they faced a deficit, willingly giving up many easy points instead of making attempts to rally back.[47] Meschery said the Warriors lobbed the ball in from the sideline across the floor directly to Chamberlain, who would use his size and strength to get the ball.[26][50] Chamberlain was the only Warrior to make a field goal in almost four minutes before Meschery made a jump shot at 4:15.[54] Philadelphia began quickly fouling New York with around four minutes left, reciprocating the intentional foul strategy.[55] Warriors coach Frank McGuire at one point pulled out his entire starting five, save Chamberlain, and replaced them with bench players.[note 3] The intention was to foul the Knicks, get the ball back after free throws and give Chamberlain the ball. Thus each team spent the last minutes fouling each other.[52] The Warriors ended with 25 personal fouls, and the Knicks with 32, and lost Imhoff and Willie Naulls with six fouls.[22]
With 2:12 left, Chamberlain had 94 points, and he scored on a fadeaway for his 96th point. His next basket at 1:19 came off a lob pass from York Larese for a powerful dunk that was rare for Chamberlain. Gary M. Pomerantz in his book Wilt, 1962: The Night of 100 Points and the Dawn of a New Era wrote that Chamberlain's usual "Dipper Dunk" was "a considerably less emphatic basket stuff, like a rock that barely ripples the pond."[52][56] With less than a minute left in the game, Chamberlain set up in the post.[52] Ruklick passed to Rodgers, who passed to Chamberlain close to the basket, but he missed the shot. Ted Luckenbill rebounded and passed it back to Chamberlain, who missed again. Luckenbill again rebounded and this time passed to Ruklick, who eschewed an easy layup and instead lobbed a high pass to Chamberlain.[57] With 46 seconds left, Chamberlain got free from the five Knicks, jumped high and put the ball into the basket to hit the century mark.[22] Eyewitness accounts of the historic basket differ as to whether Chamberlain merely laid the ball in[58][59] or actually stuffed the ball through the hoop for an alley-oop slam dunk.[22][57] In any event, the arena exploded in a frenzy, and over 200 spectators stormed the floor, wanting to touch the hero of the night.[47] Ruklick immediately ran to the scorer's table to ensure that he was officially credited with the assist.[57]
