Duke just keeps on keeping on

Florida State the latest victim

So many guys stepped up. Just a complete team win.”

Jon Scheyer’s analysis of Duke’s 100-65 win over Florida State has to be one of the early candidates for understatement of the year.

As expected Duke took the court without injured players Maliq Brown and Tyrese Proctor. Eight minutes into the game Cooper Flagg went down with a blow to the head that kept him out for the remainder of the half. A few minutes later Sion James took a seat after picking up his second foul.

Danger zone? Nope. Funky lineup time? Yep. Blow-out city? You betcha.

Duke was up 14-11 when Flagg went out, 22-14 when James sat down.

That 22-14 lead became 30-14, then 43-23. Kon Knueppel took over at point guard, Mason Gillis started hunting shots and Darren Harris got five first-half minutes.

Knueppel’s ability to handle the point with aplomb was the key.

“Just staying poised. Being more of a ball-handler is something I’m comfortable doing.”

Isaiah Evans got the starting nod with Proctor out. He missed his first five shots, all 3-pointers.

“It was definitely a little bit of nerves going on,” he said, “some stomach butterflies. Everybody has them a little bit. You’ve just got to get over it.”

He got over it. He ended the half with nine points, a couple of rebounds and an assist.

Knueppel had nine points and five assists, Gillis nine points, Khaman Malauch eight points, five rebounds and two blocks,

A mini FSU run made it 49-34 at intermission.

Duke did a lot of things well in that opening 20 minutes. But one thing almost defies comprehension. Duke did not have a single turnover in the first half. Not one.

“I thought it was super cool,” James laughed, “almost too cool because I decided to get two when I came in. But just a by-product of playing the right way.”

Duke ended with four turnovers, two of them charges by James.

“Valuing the ball in this game was a big thing,” Scheyer said. “They’re as good as anybody at turning you over and standing you up. I looked at the box at half and I couldn’t believe it was 12 (assists) to zero (turnovers). That doesn’t happen against them. It’s having multiple ball-handlers on our team and the strength to play through contact.”

Flagg? It sure looked scary when he went down. Concussion protocol? Serious eye injury?

Try sigh of relief. Scheyer said when the team’s eye specialist got a good look at it he determined that the injury was above the eye. Might be some swelling tomorrow. Could have been worse, much worse.

You may recall that an eye injury ended Scheyer’s NBA aspirartions and he said there was a flashback.

Flagg scored 12 of his 16 points in the second half and added six rebounds, four assists and two steals, all in just under 20 minutes.

Duke’s lead kept growing and growing, a 15-0 run increasing the lead from 12 to 27. The biggest lead was 35, the biggest cheer a 3-pointer by Spencer Hubbard that ended the scoring.

Evans led Duke with 19 points, making half of his eight 3-pointers after that slow start. Knueppel ended with 14 points, Maluach 14 points and 10 rebounds, James seven points and four assists. Gillis stayed at nine points.

But what really stood out was Duke’s ability to extend the lead with solid efforts from Harris (six points), Caleb Foster (four points, two rebounds, one assist), Pat Ngongba (four points, three rebounds) and of course five points from the people’s choice, Spencer Hubbard.

Duke didn’t shoot all that well from the field. But four turnovers, 28 for 34 from the line and a 49-32 advantage on the boards will win a lot of games.

And some words about Leonard Hamilton, who coached his final game at Cameron. He’s had his moments in Cameron, with guys like Al Thornton and Michael Snaer keying upset wins. He had a great effort from guard Jamir Watkins, who had a game-high 21 points. But Hamilton didn’t seem too upset over a 35-point loss. He’s seen enough hoops to know that his team was just completely overmatched and he seemed resigned to that reality.

Duke is now 26-3, 17-1 in the ACC and has won its last six games by an average margin of 31.7 points per game.

Remember when we were waiting for the offense to catch up to defense?

Maybe check that box.

Wake Forest Monday night.