TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — If you can’t take the heat, get out of the way of Derwin Kitchen.
The Florida State guard exploded for 22 points and 10 rebounds to lead the Seminoles to a 66-61 victory over the No. 1 Blue Devils (15-1, 2-1 in the ACC) last night. It was Duke’s first loss of the season, ending a 25-game win streak that dated back to last year’s national championship run.
“[Kitchen] went into beast mode,” Florida State forward Bernard James sawid. “He has a tendency not to be aggressive on offense, but today the whole team was talking to him before the game, telling him to shoot the ball when he’s open and drive to the basket.”
Thanks in large part to Kitchen and forward Chris Singleton—who scored 18 points, including a clutch 3-pointer with 3:43 left in the game that gave the Seminoles a five-point lead—Florida State beat a top-ranked Blue Devil team at home for the third time in eight years. The Seminoles, just a few days removed from losses to unranked Auburn and Virginia Tech, also snapped the second longest winning streak in Duke’s school history.
“It definitely hurts,” said senior Kyle Singler, whose 20 points couldn’t save the Blue Devils from the defeat. “We didn’t really play that well, especially in the first half. We weren’t ready for how physical the game was.”
In a back-and-forth game that saw seven ties and eight lead changes, seniors Nolan Smith and Singler helped keep Duke within striking distance of Florida State with clutch shooting. Smith finished the game with 19 points and was 3-for-7 from 3-point range. Singler drained five treys, including several threes in the middle of the second half that put Duke in a position to possibly come back and win the game.
Smith hit a wild 3-pointer to cut the Seminoles’ lead to three with two minutes left to play. However, Singleton and Michael Snaer each knocked down a pair of free throws that gave Florida State a five-point lead, from which Duke would prove unable to recover.
In all, the Seminoles hit five free throws in the contest’s last 37 seconds to seal their win.
“We haven’t been in a game like that all year. They knocked us back,” head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I really thought that Florida State played with an unbelievable amount of emotion…. [Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton] had his team playing the way they usually play, very athletic, very strong, very together.”
Florida State (12-5, 2-1) won this game with defense. The Seminoles kept a big, athletic lineup on the floor that prevented the Blue Devils from maneuvering in the paint, and the Blue Devils struggled, shooting only 31.1 percent from the field.
“They just played great defense,” Krzyzewski said. “They’re very fundamentally sound, and have been the entire time Leonard’s been here. They play outstanding defense, and they’re committed to it. I don’t think they do anything tricky, their defense just dominated our offense for about 25 minutes in the ballgame.”
The Seminoles smothered the Duke guards and prevented them from penetrating into the paint on must possessions. Duke wound up settling for 3-pointers, shooting 35 in all and making only 11. Andre Dawkins was 1-for-8 from beyond the arc, and Seth Curry also struggled, hitting only one trey in six attempts.
The unranked Seminoles took advantage of the Blue Devils’ futility from downtown and pulled off a stunner that ended with Florida State’s fans storming the court.
The unpredictable world of college basketball exhibited itself yet again.
“That’s the nature of the sport, especially at this level,” James said. “You throw a punch at a team, and they’re going to come back with two more. That’s what they did. They didn’t lay down. They fought back, and we took their punch and gave it back to them.”
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