No. 17 Duke got back in the win column with a 75-70 victory against No. 15 Florida State on Senior Night at Cameron Indoor Stadium Tuesday, with four Blue Devils scoring at least 14 points. Duke can now lock up a double bye in the ACC tournament with a win at No. 5 North Carolina in its regular-season finale Saturday night.
Revisiting the three keys to the game:
- Control the paint: After the Seminoles dominated the Blue Devils inside in a Jan. 10 romp, outrebounding them by eight and finishing with 56 points in the paint, Duke matched Florida State on the boards and limited the Seminoles to 38 paint points Tuesday. With Florida State's army of big men ineffective offensively early on, the Seminoles went to a small lineup for most of the second half to chip away at a 19-point deficit.
- Get to and convert at the free throw line: The Blue Devils attacked the basket much more aggressively than they did Saturday at Miami, where they attempted a season-low nine free throws. Even with the officials letting both teams get away with some contact for most of the game, Duke shot 14-of-19 from the line, led by strong efforts from Jayson Tatum, Luke Kennard and Frank Jackson. Graduate student Amile Jefferson shot just 2-of-5 from the charity stripe and missed the front end of two one-and-ones in the second half.
- Get Tatum back on track: Tatum's slump from the perimeter continued Tuesday night, but the freshman found other ways to impact the game. Although he needed 13 shots for his 15 points and was just 1-of-5 from long distance, Tatum grabbed nine boards, led the team with four assists and also had two emphatic blocks and two steals on the defensive end. The St. Louis native was reckless at times driving to the basket, picking up two offensive fouls and finishing with five turnovers, but it was an encouraging performance for Tatum after he managed just eight points Saturday.
Three key stats:
- Amile Jefferson notches a double-double in 31 minutes: There were questions surrounding whether Jefferson would even play in his final home game after sitting most of the second half Saturday due to his lingering foot injury, but the 6-foot-9 forward started and provided a convincing answer against the Seminoles. He was perfect on six shots from the field and finished with 14 points and 11 rebounds, and he also protected the rim with four blocks to neutralize Florida State's size.
- Duke forces 10 first-half turnovers: The Blue Devils got their hands in passing lanes a lot in the first half, heading into the locker room with an 11-point lead behind five steals that resulted in plenty of transition buckets. Duke scored 16 points off turnovers in the first half, and although Florida State only coughed the ball up twice after the break in a much cleaner offensive half, the deficit was too large to overcome.
- The Blue Devils score two bench points: Almost all of Duke's production came from its starting five, as junior Grayson Allen came off the bench to play 16 minutes but was still clearly feeling the effects of the left ankle injury that sidelined him against the Hurricanes. Allen did not have an explosive first step to the basket on his drives and only attempted three shots. Freshman Harry Giles' role was also scaled down off the bench with just one rebound in five scoreless minutes.
Three key plays:
- 17:52 remaining, second half: Tatum missed a jumper but the rebound somehow fell to Kennard under the basket in the midst of the Seminoles' big bodies. Kennard kicked a pass out to Frank Jackson in the corner, and the freshman buried the triple to put the Blue Devils in front by 17.
- 5:52 remaining, second half: After Dwayne Bacon drilled a 3-pointer to pull Florida State within eight points, the closest it had been in the second half, Kennard held the ball at the top of the key with the shot clock running down and received a pick from Jefferson. Both defenders followed Jefferson rolling to the basket, allowing Kennard to pull up from well beyond the 3-point line and respond with a triple of his own.
- 2:51 remaining, second half: With the Seminoles trailing 69-61, Jefferson got fouled while grabbing an offensive rebound off a missed layup by Jackson to go to the line for a one-and-one. Jefferson missed, but Florida State's Johnathan Isaac mishandled the rebound out of bounds to give Duke a third chance. Kennard then capped a possession that lasted nearly a minute with two free throws to demoralize the Seminoles.
And the Duke game ball goes to.... Frank Jackson
Jackson scored 13 of the Blue Devils' first 15 points of the second half on his way to a career-high 22 points. The Alpine, Utah, native shot 8-of-15 from the field and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc in 33 minutes and has taken full advantage of Allen's limitations in the last two weeks. Jackson has scored in double figures in three of Duke's last four games after reaching 10 points just four times in its first 13 ACC contests.
And the Florida State game ball goes to.... Dwayne Bacon
The Seminoles' leading scorer had a quiet first half but came alive with 16 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the last seven minutes of the game. He scored five straight points to trim a double-digit deficit to eight with plenty of time left and went on to score Florida State's last 11 points, but it was too little, too late after he attempted just three shots in the game's first 33 minutes.
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