TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-Early in the first half of its 93-87 victory over Florida State, the men's basketball team realized that it was having difficulty stopping the Seminoles from scoring.
So Duke (16-10, 7-7 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) decided that it would try to engage FSU in a shootout. By the start of the second half, the usually defensive-minded Blue Devils caught on to the trick of scoring a flurry of points over a short period of time, and Duke used three second-half scoring runs to propel it to victory in front of 7,980 fans at the Leon County Civic Center.
"We had to play an amazing offensive game to even have an opportunity tonight," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "Florida State was as determined as I've seen them. They shot the ball well, but our three-pointer saved us tonight."
The Blue Devils shot 14-for-28 on three pointers for the evening, scoring on nine of their 14 second half attempts from beyond the arc.
Duke went on a 21-8 run in the first 4:37 of the second stanza to erase a two-point halftime deficit and build a 60-48 lead. Despite a few scoring runs of its own, Florida State (12-11, 4-9 in the ACC) was never able to recover from Duke's offensive explosion at the start of the second half, as the Blue Devils led the remainder of the game.
Senior co-captain Chris Collins-who nailed a career-high seven three pointers on 11 attempts-sparked Duke's early second-half run by scoring 12 of his game-high 27 points in that stretch.
"Everyone says 'in the zone,'-well that's how I felt," Collins said. "I knew I was feeling good with my shot, so I looked for some openings. I kept hitting them from further and further back, and you can't expect them to be able to stop that."
Collins was one of four Blue Devils to finish in double-digits in scoring. Sophomore Ricky Price added 22 points on 8-for-15 shooting. Junior co-captain Jeff Capel struggled from the floor in the first half, but he also caught the scoring bug in the second half, as he poured in 16 of his 19 points after intermission.
The Blue Devils hit many of their shots as the Seminoles unsuccessfully tried to implement full-court press and zone defenses. These defensive sets often allowed Duke to have open three-point opportunities, which Collins, Price and Capel were able to convert.
"Maybe they had gotten a little tired [playing a man-to-man defense]," Collins said. "I'm surprised anytime a team plays a zone defense against us."
The Seminoles were able to battle back from Duke's run at the start of the second half to score seven unanswered points, five of which were scored by James Collins. The game continued to go back and forth until Duke went on an 8-0 run in the middle of the half to build its lead to 75-65.
Once again, though, the Seminoles fought back. Led by the play of point guard Lamar Greer, FSU scored nine of the next 10 points to cut the lead to two points with 5:26 remaining in the contest. But Collins hit another three-pointer to stop the Seminole run, and Capel was able to follow up his backcourt teammate with a three-pointer and short jumper of his own to give the Blue Devils an 84-74 lead with under three minutes to play.
Another key to Duke's win was its strong rebounding effort. Junior Greg Newton grabbed a career-high 16 boards to lead the Blue Devils. As a team, Duke outrebounded Florida State 45-31, and the Blue Devils garnered 18 offensive boards.
"It seemed like they when we would stop their offense, they would get second and third and fourth efforts," said FSU assistant coach Tom Carlson, who was filling in for suspended head coach Pat Kennedy. "We just got absolutely thrashed on the boards. That was a huge factor in the game."
Newton attributed the Blue Devils' strong rebounding efforts to their good positioning and their activity in the paint.
Another of Duke's big men who made a significant contribution was freshman Matt Christensen, who saw his first action since fracturing his wrist in Duke's first game against FSU on Jan. 20 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Christensen provided the Blue Devils a spark when senior Stan Brunson went down with a twisted ankle at the beginning of the second half. Christensen was in the game during most of Duke's first big scoring run of the half.
"We got a great lift from Matt Christensen," Collins said. "We were a little down after Stan hurt his ankle, but Matt really picked us up a lot with his intensity."
Brunson, who hurt his ankle after he landed on FSU's Corey Louis when scoring on a rebound basket, returned to the game and finished with four rebounds.
The Blue Devils were pleased with their overall effort and were happy to have finally evened their league record.
"We're improving as a basketball team," Krzyzewski said. "Not too long ago we were talking about winning a game. Now we're looking to the [NCAA] Tournament."
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