Florida State falls short at Duke: 3 Game-Changing Plays
There wasn't much hope for a Florida State team that had just 7 healthy scholarship players, and the ones sitting injured were the five best players on the team. That's hard to prepare for, to play in the moment, and to find ways to fight. But they fought.
For the most part, the first half was extremely back and forth as a lot of the bigs on both sides dealt with foul trouble. Matthew Cleveland, Jalen Warley, Wyatt Wilkes and Tanor Ngom had out of body experiences with some of the shots they were hitting, just shots they weren't hitting as of late. They were able to get the lead a couple of times, and it was 38-36 at the U4 timeout. Duke had enough in the final four minutes of the half, closing the final stretch on a 12-2 run and would take a 52-41 lead at halftime.
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In the second half, FSU could just never get it going. They kept fighting, still scrapped for loose balls, picked up defense full court with full intensity. It was just tough to play this kind of talent when you're down your five best players and relying this much on freshmen. Matthew Cleveland played 38 minutes. When was the last time you saw anyone, much less a true freshman, play those kind of minutes for Leonard Hamilton in a game that ended in regulation?
In the end, Duke's talent was too much, and they would win 88-70.
Before we get to the plays, some box score notes.
Rebounding tells a huge part of this story. Getting out-rebounded 41-23, allowing 15 offensive rebounds to go to 12 second chance points... that's tough to overcome. It's not unexpected, give FSU's injuries, and they haven't been a particularly good rebounding team all season, but you can't overcome that.
Turnovers were even, which for FSU to have a chance, they needed to dominate that facet of the game. They would have stretches where they'd have a couple of steals in a row, then not get one for another 5 minutes of action. They really had a gameplan, just didn't quite have the players to execute it.
Cleveland led the way in scoring for FSU with 16 points on 7/13 shooting, but he had a stretch for most of the second half where he really couldn't get anything going. Bad shot selection, airballed free throws, just not what was needed.
Jalen Warley had his best game of the season. Season high 35 minutes, 15 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and just 2 turnovers. That's a huge thing to grow on for him going forward. He also had two catch and shoot 3s that he hit with no hesitation. Great progress from him.
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Cam'Ron Fletcher and Tanor Ngom were both in double figures as well. Ngom looks like he's playing through injury, but he's playing pretty solid. Just wish he could get a little more of a break so we could get some good spurts out of him.
For Duke, Paolo Banchero dominated the second half, with 13 of 17 points coming in the final 20 minutes. With FSU lacking size down low, he was able to take a lot of advantage.
Really, Duke got contributions from all over. AJ Griffin and Joey Baker each had 12 points in the first half (Griffin would finish with 15), Wendell Moore Jr had 16 points, 7 assists, and 5 rebounds, Trevor Keels had 13 points, and Mark Williams had 10 points and 6 rebounds. When they have that kind of balanced scoring, they're a really hard team to beat.
Onto the plays.
Play 1
Scenario: End of Half Closer
Florida State has been doomed by bad closes to first half for really the last month. Having to continually fight back from those kinds of deficit is draining. Even if you fight back, you're used a lot of energy getting back into the game.
For the most part, the first half had been very back and forth. Duke closed the final three minutes on 12-2 run. The game was pretty much over right then.
Play 2
Scenario: Butler Dropping the Platter
John Butler had two quick fouls to start the game, so he really hadn't played much or gotten warmed up, but his second half was brutal. This was the icing on the cake. Couldn't have been a better pass, just missed at the rim. Any chance for momentum that FSU could've had stopped right here.
Play 3
Scenario: Cleveland... Oh Cleveland
We talk about team momentum, then there's a player's own momentum. Air-balling a free throw... to this extent, it's not something a lot of people forget easily. Especially a true freshman who has had some issues shooting ball this season from the floor. He was great in the first half; 11 points on 5/8 shooting. Had hit some tough layups early on. He just wasn't it in the second half. He didn't score a point again until the U4 timeout.
Florida State will travel to Boston College for a game Monday night that will be a COVID replacement game.
