HALFTIME: Duke 32, Florida State 24

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—The Notre Dame game, this is not.

After 20 minutes of play, No. 4 Duke leads Florida State 32-24 at the Donald L. Tucker Center. With Jahlil Okafor on the bench for the majority of the half with foul trouble, the Blue Devils have been led by senior Quinn Cook with 13 points.

This has been far from the prettiest game Duke has played this season, but luckily for the Blue Devils, the Seminoles have not been able to take advantage of their poor shooting yet. Both teams failed to find the bottom of the net for nearly the first four minutes of the game.

With attention swirling around Florida State's talented guards, it has been forwards Phil Cofer and Jarquez Smith who have led the Seminoles in the first half. Cofer led the early charge for Florida State, converting on a monster dunk and 3-pointer in a two-minute span to get the fans on their feet. Smith leads the Seminoles with seven points. Junior Devon Bookert has also been key for Florida State, as he joins Cook as the only players to knock down multiple treys.

Captain Cook has been the sole driving force for the Blue Devils, as he converted a pair of fast-break layups to knot the score at 8-all before Kiel Turpin knocked down a trey to put Florida State back on top, 11-8. Aside from Cook, none of the Blue Devils have been able to convert consistently on the offensive end.

Okafor has been notably absent in the first 20 minutes, as the Chicago product registered just two points on a pair of free throws and no rebounds to go along with two fouls in eight minutes of play. The Blue Devils have an eight-point lead without him, but will need him to play smart and dominant against Florida State 7-footers Boris Bojanovsky and Michael Ojo in the second half to keep things from getting dicey in Tallahassee.

Observations from the first half:

• Okafor is not having his best night, as the Chicago native picked up his second foul early on and sat for 12 minutes.
• Although Quinn Cook has owned the stat sheet, Tyus Jones has been a spark plug for Duke, owning five assists to go along with his nine points.
• As much as this game may seem to be about Florida State hanging around with Duke, it is more about the Blue Devils missing 3-pointers. Duke is 3-of-11 from downtown and 9-of-14 from inside the arc—not an easy feat with one of the country's best big men on the bench for 12 minutes.
• Three at last, three at last. It took eight tries, but Cook finally connected from downtown to give the Blue Devils their first trey of the night with 8:32 remaining in the game.
• If you missed Phil Cofer's dunk on Okafor, don't worry—it will be on Sportscenter tonight. The Florida State forward rose up for a Blake Griffin-esque throw-in dunk to get the Seminole crowd on its feet
• Matt Jones has been pretty nonexistent after his 17-point outburst against Notre Dame. The DeSoto, Texas, native has no points and two rebounds in six minutes of play.