Duke’s defense, which ranks last in the ACC this season in allowed field goal percentage, was exposed Saturday as Florida State’s efficient offense handed the Blue Devils their first home loss in over two years.
The Seminoles went 27-of-50 from the field throughout Saturday’s game, shooting 67 percent in the decisive second half. Duke, on the other hand, shot 40 percent for the game and held the lead at the half, despite shooting just 31 percent in the opening frame.
This lead, however, has a lot to do with the strong rebounding Duke displayed.The Blue Devils pulled down 10 offensive rebounds in the first half compared to Florida State’s one, resulting in 13 secondchance points.
One of these second chances came on the first possession, as Duke’s first basket of the night came as a result of Mason Plumlee keeping the ball alive and giving Seth Curry a chance to drain a 3-pointer.
Both Mason and Miles Plumlee had strong first halves against the Seminoles’ Xavier Gibson and Bernard James. Mason had five rebounds, including two on the offensive glass, while his older brother Miles managed to grab eight boards with six coming on offense. Combined, the two brothers recorded one rebound shy of the entire Florida State lineup in the first 20 minutes.
This inside play changed greatly in the second half. Mason Plumlee would go on to grab one more defensive rebound in the second half and Miles did not pull down a single rebound. Duke, as a team, would only have 11 rebounds in this second period, half of its rebounding total from the first period.
“I think both teams played better offensively in the second half,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “I thought it showed how strong people were trying to execute against strong defenses.”
The lack of extra possessions cost Duke in the second half on a poor shooting night where each opportunity was critical. Ryan Kelly, who scored 20 points against Wake Forest last Thursday, went 0-for-5 in the first half before draining his first shot with 11:43 remaining in the game.
Duke struggled in the paint, allowing 24 points while only scoring 16 of its own.Excellent ball movement constantly forced the Blue Devils to rotate and opened opportunities for Florida State to feed James and Gibson. The Seminoles recorded 11 assists in the second period, most passes to the inside.
Florida State’s gameplan of feeding its big men was effective, as both James and Gibson scored in double-digits in the second period alone. The two also came up big protecting the basket with a combined five blocks throughout the game. This constant pressure put Mason Plumlee in foul trouble, which reduced his ability to play aggressively and caused his low rebound total in the second half.
“Mason’s obviously a huge player for us,” Kelly said. “He rebounds the basketball and he makes plays on the offensive end. But we’ve got to fight through that and that’s part of the game.”
With the Seminoles down by eight with less than ten minutes to go and Duke looking poised to put the game out of reach, Florida State began to consistently feed Gibson and James in the post. The Blue Devils struggled to stop the pair of Seminole post players and began to lose their lead. Eight minutes later, the Seminoles had tied the game at 69.
In the end, while the Blue Devils did enough to stay in the game by making key shots and never letting the Florida State lead stretch beyond two points, it was a shot at the buzzer that stopped Duke short of tying a school-record home win streak of 46 games.
“Whenever we got up … they always made a run and got back into the game or tied it up,” Curry said. “We could never really get over the hump of making that extra run to put them away. It was just two good teams.”
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