Blue Devils roll through Florida State after 10-day break

DURHAM – Some time away was good for Dariq Whitehead, just as it seemed to be good for the rest of the Blue Devils.

“I think sometimes getting away and clearing your head and coming back can be a good thing,” coach Jon Scheyer said. “Just like I said for the team it’s a fresh start, I felt the same way for Dariq.”

No. 17 Duke rolled toward the new year with an 86-67 win over visiting Florida State on Saturday at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

Graduate transfer Ryan Young had 20 points and 12 rebounds without missing a shot, making seven field goals and six free throws, becoming the sixth Blue Devil to ever record a 20-10 game without a miss. Sophomore Jaylen Blakes, starting for the first time in his career, matched a career-high with 17 points — which he set in Duke’s last game.

And Whitehead, the uber-talented freshman who missed the first three games and finally looked to be revving up to speed before missing Duke’s last game with an illness, had a season-high 16 points.

Scheyer told Whitehead what was coming.

“I knew coming back (from the holiday break), I had to lock in more than previous weeks,” Whitehead said. “Coach believed in me, he told me this was going to be the game, he told me he felt like I was going to get my confidence back in this game.”

Whitehead scored 15 against Maryland Eastern Shore on Dec. 10, and then missed Duke’s trip to Wake Forest. The Blue Devils missed him in that 81-70 loss.

Because Duke was off for Christmas after the Wake Forest game, Whitehead went until Dec. 27 before practicing again.

“A long time without basketball,” Whitehead said. “But like I said, you’ve just gotta have coaches who believe in you and the main thing is confidence. Coaches had confidence in me and I went out there and produced.”

That, Scheyer explained, is the lesson to be gleaned.

“Give him credit, but this is for any of our guys: It’s never smooth sailing,” Scheyer said. “It just isn’t. For Dariq, I think he’s gotten a lot tougher in this stretch. He’s not the only one, I could go through any of our guys, any of our freshmen have gone through ups and downs already.

“Any freshman who’s ever come through here has gone through that and they’re going to be better for it.”

Duke’s season has had more ups than downs, though the Blue Devils were coming off arguably the lowest point of the season thus far.

Duke had nine days between its final non-conference game against UMES and its 11-point loss at Wake Forest on Dec. 20.

Ten days between that loss and Saturday’s game afforded Duke the chance to evaluate and adjust, and the first of those adjustments was announced about 30 minutes before the game began.

Duke shuffled its starting lineup, inserting Blakes for his first career start. He had a career-high 17 points as one of the lone bright spots against Wake Forest.

Blakes scored Duke’s first five points and 8 of the first 14, with Young providing the other six points in the first 8½ minutes.

“We had four good days coming off of Christmas break,” Blakes said. “We went home, but we came back motivated. … We really valued the ball, shared the ball and did a great job defensively.”

Duke had 18 assists (on 29 field goals) and only committed nine turnovers — it’s the fourth time this season with fewer than 10 turnovers.

When Duke picked up Young in the transfer portal, this is probably what the best-case scenario resembled. Saturday’s game was the 98th of his career and it’s the fourth 20-point game—the others came against SIU Edwardsville (25 points), Fairleigh Dickinson and High Point.

Duke was outrebounded by Wake Forest 37-29 in its last game; the Blue Devils owned a 32-24 advantage against the Seminoles.

“We have a very tall, versatile team with a ton of athletes in this room,” Young said. “Losing the rebounding battle is something that we have to take more pride in, it can’t happen. … Defense and rebounding has to be something that we hang our hat on.

“I’m glad that we bounced back the way we did. I think we handled our business today the way that I know we can.”

It was a tied game at 11-11 through eight minutes when Duke made a move into the lead with a 13-2 run that featured three 3-pointers — two from Blakes, one from Jeremy Roach — and four points from Whitehead.

What was more impressive, perhaps more important, over that stretch was the Blue Devils’ defense.

FSU (4-11, 2-2) went more than four minutes without a field goal, and about 3½ without scoring. Three of the Seminoles’ eight first-half turnovers came in that span.

Duke closed the first half on an 11-3 run, pushing a comfortable nine-point lead into a 42-25 cushion to take into halftime. Whitehead scored the last four points of those, converting a euro-step layup, intercepting a pass on the ensuing possession, and going coast-to-coast to draw a foul and make a pair of free throws.

“To extend the lead to 17 at the half was a big deal,” Scheyer said.

FSU cut Duke’s lead to 11 a couple of times in the second half but never got it under single digits.

The pacing of the second half slowed to a grind, with more fouls called in the first eight minutes (17) than were called in the entire first half (14).

Duke pulled away thanks to a stretch of holding FSU without a field goal for more than four minutes, in which the Blue Devils’ 12-point lead became 81-56 on a deep 3-pointer by Roach.

FSU coach Leonard Hamilton took note of how closely Duke resembled teams he’s spent the last two decades coaching against, along with how different his team is from the ones that have elevated the Seminoles to an upper-echelon ACC program in years past.

“I didn’t see very much difference in how they’ve played in the past. … Moving the ball, played very unselfish. I was very impressed with them,” Hamilton said. “We’re not the same team. I’m not really sure that would’ve mattered.

“This is probably the most-inexperienced team we’ve had. Hopefully we can learn from this. Learn what it takes to play against a team that’s as aggressive as they are.”

TIP-INS: Young’s company in Duke lore of recording a 20-10 game without a miss is Ryan Kelly, who was most recent (2011 against Wake Forest), Christian Laettner (*that* game), Carlos Boozer (twice), Grant Hill and Larry Saunders. … Jacob Grandison was last of Duke’s nine-player rotation to enter the game, but provided a spark with a couple of first-half 3s. … Duke’s 46 bench points — buoyed by Young and Whitehead coming off the bench — are the most Duke has had since a 2005 game against Wake Forest. … Blakes scored 74 points in his first 33 games (2.24 points per game) before the past two 17-point performances.