Duke routs FSU 88-70
Duke used a strong second half to rout Florida State, 88-70.
DURHAM, N.C. — Duke avenged its mid-January loss to Florida State with a dominating performance on Saturday, defeating the Seminoles 88-70.
The Blue Devils’ victory was the result of a wide array of things, notably the team’s energy from the start. Some of that came from the atmosphere created by the Cameron Crazies. Some of it was this team was simply ready to play.
“It was just one of those games,” Wendell Moore Jr. said after the game. “We’ve been talking about it all week. Just kind of one of those times you got tired of talking and you just want to go out there and just play. I feel like everybody who stepped on the floor just came with tremendous energy tonight.”
While Duke’s mindset is what built the foundation in which the players worked from Saturday, two on-court components were what ultimately led to the win: offensive balance and defensive pressure.
Lets first look at Duke’s defensive effort. Mike Krzyzewski said they learned today that Florida State senior guard RayQuan Evans would not play. Evans, who averages just over eight points per game, was not much of a scoring weapon in the first matchup, but he did hand out five assists. He is by all accounts a very important player for FSU and how they get their offense started.
Aware of that fact, Krzyzewski and his team believed the opportunity to turn the Seminoles over was prime. And it was. Just not in the way the Blue Devils attacked the FSU offense for most of the first half.
Duke immediately started looking for the steal. And it was a clear almost instantly that Florida State was not going to simply give in to the Blue Devils’ pressure. Consequently, it cost Duke and made the game much more interesting than they might have liked.
At least early on, anyway.
“We found out today about the injury to Evans,” Krzyzewski said. “My feeling is we were ready to play and in the first half we felt like we could steal the ball or pressure and get them. They’re strong with the ball. Their kids played really well.”
Duke did manage to get three steals in the first half, but Florida State, more often than not, exploited the Blue Devils’ attempts at creating turnovers. They blew by the defense and found their way into the paint at will.
Florida State scored 28 points in the paint through the first 20 minutes of the game. Duke turned them over just five times during the same stretch.
As a result of FSU’s ability to get by defenders, Duke allowed the Seminoles to shoot 58.6% from the floor. Offense was easy for the Seminoles and it was due to how Duke approached Evans’ absence.
According to Krzyzewski it all started with his team’s approach to defending the ball at the top of the offense.
“When you try to steal, you commit,” he said. “You don’t steal with two hands, you steal with one. And when you do you get narrow, and when you get narrow they go by you. When you control the ball you have two hands out and you’re wide.
“We were playing hard. We just thought we could win quicker and that wasn’t going to happen. And they didn’t contribute to that. They said, no no you’re not going to win that way because they’re a helluva a program.”
Not only did Duke not win quick, the first half made it appear as if everyone was in store for another battle to the bitter end.
Though Florida State led for just 4:41 in the first half, there were six lead changes and five ties. And up until the 1:50 mark of the first half, neither team had more than a two-possession lead.
Although the defense did not necessarily change in the final few minutes — at least in terms of Duke turning the Seminoles over — the visitors scored just two points over the final three minutes. In fact, Duke went on a 12-2 run to closeout the first half.
A big reason for that was the play of Joey Baker who lit up the scoreboard, scoring six of his 12 first half points over a 20 second span of time. That stretch gave Duke a nine point lead with 1:50 left in the first half.
“Joey saved us in the first half. Joey was spectacular,” Krzyzewski said.
Moore also attributed Duke’s ability to right the ship late in the first half to Baker.
“Joey came in and hit four huge threes in the first half. Things like that are what I get the most excited about — when my guys are doing well.”
Baker was 4-of-5 from 3-point range in the first half and ultimately did not take another shot in the game, but his play early was critical for Duke.
While offense saved Duke from it’s struggles on defense in the first half, everything came together in the second half.
Krzyzewski talked about how Duke’s attempts to steal the ball in the first half cost them — left them narrow and allowed for driving lanes. It was an issue he and his staff fixed at halftime.
And his players responded and executed almost flawlessly in the second half. Wendell Moore had five of his six steals in the second half, and the Blue Devils had 12 of their 15 points off turnovers for the game.
Duke also flipped the script on points in the paint. While FSU did score 16 points in the paint in the second half, 10 of those came in the final 4:02 of the game. The Blue Devils, who scored 18 points in the paint in the first half, posted 20 points near the hoop in the second.
Florida State ultimately shot just 40% in the second half as a result.
The Blue Devils approach simply changed the whole game.
“In the second half we controlled the ball. That was the adjustment we made,” Krzyzewski said. “When you try to steal you’re not going to get turnovers. You might get one steal, but they’re going to go by you. When you control the ball, you have a chance to do stuff off the ball and that’s what happened in the second half.
“By controlling the dribble better, we were able to keep them out and we had good hands. We thought we could do that in the first half by over pressuring and that didn’t work. That was a big part of the game — the points off turnovers.”
Duke also owned the glass, out-rebounding Florida State 41-23, including 15 offensive rebounds to just six from the visitors. The Blue Devils scored 12 second chance points compared to FSU’s one.
Now let’s talk about offensive.
The Blue Devils were tremendous with the ball in their hands, shooting 51.6% for the game. As impressive as that percentage total is, the way in which they got their shots was even more eye-opening.
Duke posted 25 assists on 32 made shots. Three players posted five or more assists, including Trevor Keels, who led the way with eight, and Moore, who had seven. Jeremy Roach also handed out five assists.
The ball movement resulted in a lot of easy baskets — 38 points off dunks and layups to be exact.
Subsequently, Duke would go on to put six players in double figures, led by Paolo Banchero’s 17, of which all but four came in the second half. Moore posted 16 points, while AJ Griffin added 15, Keels 13, Baker 12, and Mark Williams 10.
It was as complete of an offensive performance as we have seen this season.
“I thought we assisted well,” Krzyzewski said. “Twenty-five assists. Some of the passes from Trevor were spectacular. And I really thought Paolo had a different gear in the second half.”
Moore also acknowledged the ball movement and Keels’ part in making it happen.
“We had 25 assists to 11 turnovers tonight,” Moore echoed. “That was a huge thing for us. Trevor led the way with eight assists. Trevor does a great job handling the ball. He takes pressure off myself and Jeremy, even Paolo. We have four ball-handlers when he’s in there, when AJ’s in we have five ball-handlers.
“So his role in doing that was huge. I feel like we all shared the ball tonight. When everybody gets a touch, that’s the fun aspect of the game. Everybody is smiling. Everybody is having fun. You don’t know who is scoring. Night’s like these are great nights.”