Beyond the Arc: Duke basketball vs. Florida State

Sporting its throwback all-blue jerseys, Duke narrowly escaped an upset bid from Florida State Monday night, prevailing with a 73-70 victory at the Donald L. Tucker Center. The performance from the No. 4 Blue Devils was a far cry from their dominant 30-point demolition of then-No. 10 Notre Dame the last time they hit the hardwood, but the backcourt duo of Tyus Jones and Quinn Cook carried the team to victory. Cook posted a season-high and led all scorers with 26 points and Jones notched a double-double with 16 points and 12 dimes to help overcome a feisty Seminole squad that ended the game on a 16-7 run.

Revisiting the three keys to the game:

• Contributions from the bench: Duke’s three reserves—Grayson Allen, Marshall Plumlee and Matt Jones—all saw significant minutes Monday, especially in the first half with the team suffering major shooting woes and Jahlil Okafor being relegated to the bench due to foul trouble. Plumlee had the best night of the three, making the most of his opportunities with Okafor sidelined and hitting both of his field goal attempts en route to a four-point, three-rebound, two-block performance. Allen and Jones were largely ineffective—combining for just two points on 1-of-9 shooting in 30 minutes—representing a considerable step back for both players, who had been showing improved play as of late.
• Neutralize the bigs: Florida State inflicted most of its offensive damage from the perimeter and with its guard play, with its three 7-footers failing to provide much punch on the offensive end. Kiel Turpin, Michael Ojo and Boris Bojanovsky scored just four points between the three of them, but they made their presence felt on the defensive end. The trio hounded Okafor into a weak first half in which he played just eight minutes and scored two points. Ojo was a force in the paint as well, racking up three blocks—including a critical rejection of Tyus Jones as he drove to the hoop in the game’s waning minutes.
• Close out on the perimeter: Once again, Duke allowed a poor 3-point shooting team to have a great night from beyond the arc, and it was this success from downtown that played a big role in the Seminoles’ ability to keep the game within reach. Florida State entered the night shooting less than 30 percent from deep, but connected on 7-of-14 triples Monday. Devon Bookert led the way by hitting 3-of-4 shots from 3-point range, and seldom-used Robbie Berwick pitched in with a pair of deep treys from several steps behind the arc that cut the Blue Devil lead to three in the second half.

Three key plays:

• 9:19, first half: Tyus Jones drives into the lane and draws the attention of the Florida State defense, leaving Plumlee wide open under the basket. Jones dishes to the redshirt junior, who throws down a two-handed dunk to highlight a 12-0 Duke run that helped the Blue Devils recover from their slow start.
• 16:15, second half: Okafor may have been neutralized in the first half, but he came out of the locker room in peak form to begin the second half. He scored eight points in the first four minutes, punctuated by this beautiful alley-oop from Jones that stretched the lead to 13—already the third time that the duo connected for a bucket on a lob pass above the rim.
• 1:37, second half: In a classic display of Duke defense and grit, sophomore Matt Jones takes a charge from 6-foot-7 Montay Brandon as he barrels down the lane hoping to cut the Blue Devil lead to two. The play followed a huge block by the Seminoles’ Michael Ojo, and shifted the momentum back to the Duke as it tried to protect a four-point lead.

Three key stats:

• Blue Devils start out 0-8 from the field, then hit 7 of their next 8 attempts: Calling this a slow start for the Duke would be a bit of an understatement, as it was unable to find any rhythm offensively in its worst offensive stretch since the end of its loss at Notre Dame a few weeks ago. The Blue Devils were 0-for-6 on 3-pointers during this opening six-minute scoring drought, often settling for quick treys instead of setting up their offense and trying to move the ball inside.
• Duke goes 20-of-26 from the free throw line: The charity stripe had been one of the Blue Devils’ weaker areas recently, but Monday it was able to frequently pick up points from the charity stripe. Led by a 7-of-10 performance from freshman Justise Winslow and a 6-for-7 effort from Cook, Duke was able to make five more free throws than Florida State—and did so at a very respectable 76.9 percent rate. This was especially crucial given the Blue Devils’ shooting woes that plagued them for much of the game, and it was important for Duke to pick up points even when its shots weren’t falling, as will be the case moving forward.
• Blue Devils outscore Seminoles 12-0 in fastbreak points: When a conventional set offense isn’t producing points, another way to put the ball in the basket is by getting out in transition, and that’s exactly what Duke did. The Blue Devils used their athleticism and some excellent court vision from Tyus Jones to capitalize on several Florida State misses, turning them into easy buckets on the other end before the defense could get set.

And the Florida State game ball goes to…Devin Bookert

Bookert played his best game of the season Monday night, doing all he could to bring the Seminoles back and give them a shot at pulling off the upset. The junior guard, who was averaging just 10.2 points per game prior to this outburst, put together a lights-out shooting performance—6-of-8 from the field, including 3-of-4 from downtown—en route to a season-high 23 points. Bookert was particularly clutch from the charity stripe—where he finished 8-of-12 with a few intentional misses—down the stretch, hitting several key free throws that cut into the Blue Devil lead.