Florida State’s best effort had the nation’s No. 6 team on the ropes for most of Saturday afternoon.
It was almost good enough.
Isaiah Evans scored a career-high 28 points as Duke held off upset-minded Florida State 91-87 on Saturday.
The sophomore guard shot 6 of 14 from 3-point range, surpassing his career-best that was set in the opener against Texas on Nov. 4. Evans’ six 3-pointers was a career-high.
Freshman Cameron Boozer had 17 points and had season-bests in assists (nine) and steals (four) for Duke, which improved to 13-1, 2-0 Atlantic Coast Conference.
Florida State (7-8, 0-2) battled from start to finish and closed the deficit to 87-85 on Kobe MaGee’s 3-pointer with 23 seconds to go. The Seminoles were forced to foul, and Evans made a pair of free-throw attempts with 12 seconds left. MaGee missed a contested, off-balance 3-pointer with seven seconds to go and Duke rebounded to secure the win.
“It stinks to lose. But you can feel the improvement,” FSU coach Luke Loucks said. “Our job as a coaching staff is to help these guys get better every day individually and collectively as a team. I know it hasn’t shown up in the results yet. But if we play the way we played the past two games, we’re going to win a lot of games in the ACC.
“The improvement is there from where we were a few weeks ago in that five-game stretch to where we are now is two completely different teams. We have some fight to us. We have some competitive spirit. We have a bend but don’t break mentality of ‘they’re going to go on some runs.’ Our communication has been much better both on and off the court.”
Chauncey Wiggins scored 22 points, making 8 of 11 shots and matching his career-high. The Clemson transfer also had 22 points against Alcorn State on Nov. 4.
Robert McCray V also had 22 points, showing 7 of 10 from the floor, and distributing five assists. MaGee finished with 17 points on 6 of 11 shooting.
Despite a significant height advantage in the front court, Duke out rebounded Florida State just 31-24. Caleb Foster and Patrick Ngongba each had six rebounds. The Blue Devils turned 10 offensive rebounds into only 11 second-chance points.
Florida State shot 31 of 58 (53.4 percent) and 14 of 30 (46.7 percent) from 3-point range. The Seminoles were averaging 11.4 made 3-pointers coming into Saturday’s game.
Martin Somerville had 10 points in the first half but picked up his third foul with FSU leading 35-31 and 4:19 left in the half.
FSU shot 8 of 17 from 3-point range in the first half and was tied with Duke at the half 42-42.
Duke shot 28 of 53 (52.8 percent) from the floor and 12 of 27 (44.4 percent) from 3-point range.
Up next
Florida State plays host to NC State on Saturday, Jan. 10.
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