Florida State made another furious rally at home on Monday night, but in the end, it was too little, too late as the Seminoles came up on the short end of a 73-70 score against No. 4 Duke.
Devon Bookert set a new career-high with 23 points on 6-for-8 shooting against the Blue Devils and tied a season-high with 6 assists as FSU (13-12, 5-7 ACC) whittled what was a 14-point Duke lead down to one.
Duke (21-3, 8-3 ACC) led 66-54 with just over five minutes to play, but Florida State used a 15-4 run spurred by a pair of 3-point plays from Montay Brandon and another from Bookert, to make it 70-69 with 12 seconds left.
Twice, FSU had the ball down by three in the closing seconds, but Duke elected to foul in each case. Bookert intentionally missed the second free throw both times, but Florida State was unable to corral the rebound and get up a potential tying shot.
The Seminoles held Duke scoreless for more than six minutes to open the game, but the Blue Devils got hot to close the first half and go into the locker room with a 32-24 lead.
Senior Quinn Cook scored 26 points to lead Duke while freshman Tyus Jones added 16 points, a career-high 12 assists and team-best 6 rebounds. Jahlil Okafor overcame early foul trouble to finish with 13 points on a perfect 5-for-5 shooting for the Blue Devils and fellow freshman Justise Winslow scored 10, but on just 1-for-6 from the field.
In addition to Bookert’s career-night, Brandon scored 12 points and Jarquez Smith chipped in with 11 points. Junior Michael Ojo was held without a field goal, but led the Seminoles with a career-high 9 rebounds and a career-high tying 3 blocks.
After playing four of its last five games at home, Florida State will hit the road to face Georgia Tech on Saturday. Duke will also be on the road Saturday as it faces Syracuse.
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