 would win its ninth straight game. He finished with 23 points on 9 of 15 shooting.Duke played the second half without star freshman Zion Williamson, who left the game after getting poked in the eye late in the first half. He didn't return and had 11 points and eight rebounds in 17 minutes.P. J. Savoy made a pair of free throws with 15.8 seconds left, just seconds after forcing a turnover, to put Florida State ahead 78-76 RJ Barrett, who finished with 32 points on 10 of 19 shooting, then hit the first of two free throws with 5 seconds left. He missed the second, but the Blue Devils retained possession after a review overruled a call on the floor that the ball had gone out of bounds of a Duke player setting up Reddish's shot.Wiilliamson got hurt when he drove to the basket. Florida State's Trent Forrest hit the freshman in the face and Williamson landed hard on the court. He stayed down for several moments covering his face. He saw a trainer and went to the locker room just before the half ended. Williamson sat on the bench for the second half, but didn't play.Mfiondu Kabengele came off the bench to record his third career double-double, recording tying a career-high with 24 points and 10 rebounds for Florida State (13-3, 1-2). Phil Cofer made five 3-pointers and had a season-high 21 points.Florida State last hosted a No. 1 team exactly eight years ago, knocking off Duke 66-61 on Jan. 12, 2011. This time the Seminoles fell just short.BIG PICTUREDuke: The Blue Devils were on the ropes but pulled out a road victory in a tough environment, doing it without Williamson. Duke is 4-1 vs. top-15 opponents this season.Florida State: The Seminoles missed out on their fifth win over a top-ranked team.UP NEXTDuke has little time to rest, playing host to Syracuse on Monday.Florida State faces a short turnaround at Pittsburgh on Monday.)
Jan 10, 2019Top-ranked Duke is gaining confidence, and that's a good thing for the Blue Devils.They might need all the sources clicking in Saturday afternoon's Atlantic Coast Conference game against No. 13 Florida State at the Tucker Center in Tallahassee, Fla.Freshman forward Cam Reddish reached double figures for only the second time in six games when Duke played earlier this week at Wake Forest.That was a sign of progress for the Blue Devils (13-1, 2-0 ACC)."When a young kid hasn't played to the level he thinks he can play at, he gets down on himself a little bit," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "When he hit the 3 to end the first half, it was a big shot, both for him and his confidence and for us as a team." Reddish finished with 10 points. He wasn't the only one showing a perimeter touch because freshman forward Zion Williamson racked up 30 points, bolstered by 3-for-4 shooting from 3-pointers.Williamson entered the game 4-for-21 on 3-point attempts this season."At first, I was like if it's not falling, then I'm not going to shot it," Williamson said. "Not only coach, but the assistant coaches and my teammates, even when I miss, tell me to keep shooting and that I can make it." Don't expect Duke to resort to 3-point shooting.The Blue Devils took only eight long-range shots in the second half of the 87-65 triumph at Wake Forest, using 17-for-23 second-half shooting from 2-point range to lock down that result.For Florida State (13-2, 1-1), this is the second game in an eight-day span against a top-4 team after opening ACC play last weekend with a loss at undefeated Virginia.So it's really about getting used to these situations."We have to just be who we are is what I want to see," Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. "We're not going to change anything. That's one thing about the ACC. We have the No. 1 team coming in to play us on Saturday so you can say this is a big game, but every night you have an ACC opponent it's going to be a big game. There's going to be a big opponent and you have to redirect that."It's Duke this week, next week it's going to be somebody else who might not be quite as talented as Duke but they're going to be a big game for us." Duke is bound to draw a crowd, but Hamilton said he doesn't want to dwell on the atmosphere."We can't get caught up in anything else," he said. "I'm glad that our fans are excited. I hope they're excited about coming to see FSU." Florida State pulled out a 68-62 victory against visiting Miami on Wednesday night."It's one of those games we look back at the end of the season and we're glad we won it," Hamilton said. "I still think we are fortunate to be where we are while we continue to keep trying to improve and get better and hopefully, we continue to keep winning while we develop." For Duke, the game at Florida State could be different on several levels. It will be the first true road game out of state. The environment will differ from the one at Wake Forest, where several thousand Duke fans were in the building.--Field Level Media
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