Duke basketball pulls away from Florida State in second half for win, series split
No. 9 Duke survived Florida State’s early shooting barrage, wore down the short-handed Seminoles and tightened its grip on first place in the ACC on Saturday night.
Paolo Banchero scored 17 points to lead six Blue Devils scoring in double figures as Duke pulled away in the second half to beat the Seminoles 88-70 at Cameron Indoor Stadium.
Junior Wendell Moore had 16 points with seven assists while freshman A.J. Griffin added 15 points. Fellow freshman guard Trevor Keels also propelled Duke’s offense with 13 points and eight assists as the Blue Devils shot 51.6%.
Duke had 25 assists on its 32 field goals.
“I thought we assisted well — 25 assists,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “Some of the passes from Trevor were spectacular. I really thought Paolo had a different gear in the second half.”
Keels said Duke’s passing made it a better team on Saturday night.
“I think we’re a different team when we get 25 assists like that,” Keels said. “We were driving and kicking. I think we kicked way more today. I think we shared the ball really well. When we share the ball like that I don’t think anybody can beat us.”
The Blue Devils (23-4 overall, 13-3 ACC) stretched their winning streak to four and have won nine of their past 10 games.
With four regular-season games remaining, Duke is alone atop the ACC standings, one game in front of Notre Dame (19-8, 12-4) after the Irish lost 79-74 at Wake Forest earlier Saturday. UNC and Miami, both 19-8 and 11-5 in league play, are two games back of Duke.
In Krzyzewski’s final season, the Blue Devils are chasing their first ACC regular-season championship since 2010.
“One hundred percent that’s something we want to do,” Moore said. “We set our goals this year to win three championships. The first one is the ACC regular-season championship. We have four games left to accomplish that.”
After a 79-78 overtime loss to Florida State on Jan. 18 in Tallahassee, Florida, the Blue Devils were eager for another shot at the Seminoles.
They faced a depleted foe, though.
The Seminoles played without five injured players who were not in uniform, all of whom have started games this season. Senior guards RayQuan Evans and Anthony Polite, sophomore guard Caleb Mills, senior forward Malik Osborne and junior center Raheem McLeod were all out.
After leading 52-41 at halftime despite Florida State shooting 59%, the Blue Devils pushed their lead to 65-49 with 11:48 to play as the Seminoles hit just 2 of their first 12 shots in the second half.
Matthew Cleveland scored 16 points to lead Florida State (14-12, 7-9).
Despite injuries to their top players, the Seminoles stayed with the Blue Devils for most of the first half thanks to their ability to drive into the lane for high percentage shots. When Tanor Ngom scored inside with 3:53 left in the half, the Seminoles had scored 26 points in the paint and trailed 38-36.
A Wyatt Wilkes 3-pointer with 3:26 until halftime left Duke up 40-39.
But the Blue Devils closed the half strongly thanks to Joey Baker, who scored all 12 of his points in the first half. His back-to-back 3-pointers fueled an 8-0 Duke run giving the Blue Devils a 48-39 lead.
“Joey saved us in the first half,” Krzyzewski said. “Joey was spectacular.”
Duke took a 52-41 lead to halftime even though Florida State hit 17 of 29 shots from the field (58.6%).
This story was originally published February 19, 2022 at 8:09 PM with the headline "Duke basketball pulls away from Florida State in second half for win, series split."