Duke men rebound with 86-67 win over Florida State.
Ryan Young, Jaylen Blakes and Dariq Whitehead key win
Duke broke open a close game in the middle of the first half Saturday afternoon in Cameron and withstood every attempt by Florida State to get back into the game. The result was an 86-67 Duke win, a positive note on which to finish the 2022 calendar year, especially after Duke’s desultory loss at Wake Forest earlier this month.
The win ran Duke’s record to 11-3 overall, 2-1 in the ACC.
Duke accomplished this with minimal first-half contributions from most of its touted freshman class. In fact, Kyle Filipowski, Dereck Lively II, Mark Mitchell and Tyrese Proctor combined for all of two first-half points, a short jumper by Proctor the outlier.
And Duke was ahead 42-25 at intermission.
You may notice that I omitted one important freshman and I’ll get to him in a minute. But the first-half keys were sophomore guard Jaylen Blakes and grad-student center Ryan Young.
Blakes got his first career start at Duke and he earned it after being one of the few Blue Devils to bring their A-game to Winston-Salem.
Blakes said he learned he was starting “about two days ago. Coach let me know and we built off of that.”
Blakes has been a high-energy producer off the bench but said he had no problem bringing the same level of energy as a starter.
“Always bringing energy,” he said. “That’s one of the things I hang my hat on, one of my strengths. Whether that’s coming off the bench or starting, I’ll always be bringing energy.”
“His energy, his confidence, his defense has been rock solid for us,” Scheyer said. “We made the switch and credit to him he took advantage of that opportunity. Can’t be a one-time thing. He needs to continue to build.”
Blakes scored the first five points for Duke. But FSU still led 7-5 when Young took over. Young was visibly upset with Wake’s inside dominance against Duke. Young converted his offensive rebound to tie the game at 7-7. Then he scored inside and then he hit a pair of foul shots and Duke was up 11-7.
A coach’s assessment of Young’s game.
“I was impressed with Young, his ability, his grit, his experience. I thought he displayed some maturity out there.”
But that wasn’t Jon Scheyer talking. That was Florida State head coach Leonard Hamilton, adding that Duke fed off Young’s strength.
Caleb Mills scored four points for the visitors and it was tied at 11-11, the last deadlock of the game.
Blakes gave Duke the lead at 14-11 with another triple. Almost nine minutes into the game Blakes (8) and Young (6) were the only Blue Devils who had scored.
Enter that other freshman, Dariq Whitehead. Whitehead scored four points, Jeremy Roach and Blakes hit 3 pointers and Duke led 24-13.
FSU closed to 24-18. But Jake Grandison hit a 3 and the lead ballooned from there.
It was 42-25 at intermission, Young with 12 points and 6 rebounds, Blakes with 11 points, Whitehead with 8, Grandison with 6, Young’s old-school dominance balanced by a spectacular wrong-footed layup in transition by Whitehead.
Hamilton said Duke “was so aggressive they unsettled our kids in the first half.”
The second-half was a bit of a slog. FSU cut their deficit to 11 three times in the second half but Duke answered every time. I’m not sure I've ever seen a team with a double-digit lead get called for 15 fouls in the second half before. I guess I can check that off my bucket list.
In fairness it should be noted that FSU was whistled for 11 second-half fouls.
Then again, in fairness it should be mentioned that they were the team trailing all half. If you’ve never sat through a half with 26 fouls before, I do not recommend it.
Young, Blakes and Whitehead continued their stellar play but the other freshmen chipped in, Mitchell with 8 points, Filipowski with 6. Lively spent the whole game in foul trouble and ended with one rebound and no points in 12:34 of playing time.
Duke led by as many as 25 after a 12-0 run made it 81-56.
Young ended the game with 20 points and 12 rebounds, hitting 7 of 7 from the field, 6 of 6 from the line, with a pair of assists and no turnovers.
Scheyer joked that “I’m sure I’ll find something he could have done better. But it was pretty close [to perfect]. I think he fouled twice. Maybe one of them was a good foul.”
Young said “we bounced back the way we wanted to, and the way we know we should. I said it was inexcusable [at Wake Forest] and I stand by that. We have a very tall, versatile team, with a ton of athletes and losing the rebounding battle, we need to take more pride. It shouldn’t happen. Defense and rebounding has to be the things we need to hang our hat on and I’m glad we bounced back the way we did. I think we handled our business today the way we know we can.”
Duke outrebounded Florida State 32-24, while holding the visitors to 4 for 15 from beyond the arc and forcing 13 turnovers. Had it not been for FSU’s 21 for 26 from the line, the margin of victory could have been much larger. Matthew Cleveland and Caleb Mills led FSU with 18 points each, the former 10 for 10 from the line, the latter 7 of 9.
Duke hit 17 of 20 from the line and turned it over 9 times.
Blakes ended with 17 points, 3 assists and a turnover. He hit 4 of 6 from downtown.
But it may be Whitehead’s 16 points that will stand out the most if he continues to build on it and became the go-to stud we were expecting before injuries and illness slowed him down. The talented freshman said that’s behind him.
“The confidence is definitely coming back. Now it’s just getting more practice, getting more reps. Everything is going the right way, the team is going the right way. It’s good.”
“They knew we had to be a lot better,” Scheyer said of his team. “It’s not like I had to convince them of that. We got back to work. Our guys embraced it.
Thanks Jim. I so always enjoy reading your fun write ups.
It's nice to have Whitehead and LIvely back. Even with Lively's stats, he gives us such a different inside presence that was evidently missing at Wake Forest. Wake got whatever they wanted inside. Lively's stud block early in this one made it clear that wasn't happening this time. He alters shots or prevents attempts that don't show up in the stats. Lively will be fine and gives us so much.
Whitehead is getting his groove back, and will get better still this year.
I was happy to see Flip not force bad shots like he did at Wake. I would be happy if Flip didn't shoot another 3 or overdribble and focused on dominating match-ups inside, good ball-movement, or nice assists to teammates. The latter are his best strengths. He can do the former, but settling too much for the former exposes that at this level, he isn't a 7-foot guard and doesn't need to be.
Great write up, Jim. Young shows some toughness that Lively has yet to show. But they are two different type players. Young is a shot blocker, runs the floor well and good on the pick in roll. Flip didn't seem to have it yesterday. Good games for Blakes, Young and Whitehead.
GoDuke!