FSU's Rally Falls Short

TALLAHASSEE - All the ingredients were in place for Florida State to knock off No. 7-ranked Duke on Wednesday night. The Seminoles, down by 17 in the first half, owned a late lead, had a raucous crowd behind them, and appeared to have the Blue Devils on the ropes.

One shot changed all of that in Duke's 70-57 victory.

After Jason Rich's basket gave FSU a 55-54 lead - the Noles' first lead since Tony Douglas' 3-pointer early in the first half - Duke's Kyle Singler responded by drilling a 3 with 3:30 remaining, igniting a 16-2 run by the Blue Devils to close the game.

"There are shots, and then there are huge shots," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "That was a huge shot. All of a sudden, we've got a two-point lead. That was a big-time game to win. For a while there, it looked like there was no way we were going to win it. Then our guys got tough."

The shot left the Noles staggered. They fell behind, 62-55, and after a jumper by Douglas trimmed the lead to five, Duke (14-1, 2-0 ACC) scored the final eight points of the game to snap a two-game losing streak to FSU. While Singler's shot proved to be the game-winner, FSU coach Leonard Hamilton was more concerned about the way his team came out in the first half.

FSU fell behind 30-13 during a 16-0 Duke run that included 10 points from Jon Scheyer, who finished with a game-high 21 points. FSU failed to score for 6:52 during Duke's outburst.

"We just went on a roll for eight to 10 minutes that was fantastic," Krzyzewski said. "Scheyer, he just blew up. But it was so early."

Playing before a season-high crowd of 11,548 at the Donald L. Tucker Center, FSU (12-6, 1-2 ACC) came out shaky in the first half, shooting only 32.1 percent and giving up 12 fast-break points. Hamilton said the Noles missed "seven point-blank layups."

"We just were not very effective in the first half," Hamilton said. "When you get point-blank shots, you need to at least come away with a foul. Those types of possessions, when you come up empty, they come back to haunt you."

Despite a 34-22 halftime deficit, the Noles started their climb back after falling behind 40-26. Rich scored 14 of FSU's next 22 points as the Noles went on a 22-8 run to tie the game 48-all with 9:05 left. Duke then scored six in a row before five points from Douglas and a Rich drive put FSU in front by one. Rich, who didn't score in the first half, finished with a team-high 18.

"Rich played a terrific basketball game," Krzyzewski said. "He really put them on his shoulders."

But that was not good enough for FSU to knock off Duke for the third consecutive time.

"When Singler hit the shot, I still felt like we had a chance," Rich said. "You can't lose sight of that. We were able to fight back. If anything positive comes out of this, it's the way we played in the second half with that sense of desperation. We took a little too long trying to find that."

And they paid for it in the end.

INSIDE THE GAME

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Duke's Kyle Singler hit the biggest shot of the game and finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

TURNING POINT: Singler's 3-pointer with 3:30 left gave Duke the lead for good.

KEY STAT: Duke's bench outscored FSU's 33-10.

UP NEXT: FSU travels to play at Wake Forest on Sunday at 1 p.m.