FSU comes up just short in 73-70 loss to No. 4 Duke

It was the loudest the Civic Center has been all season.

And after getting down by double digits in the second half the Florida State Seminoles stormed back and had a chance in the final minute on Monday night to knock off Duke.

But alas there would be no court-storming this time around as the No. 4 Blue Devils held on for a 73-70 win before a crowd of 11,498.

"I thought they played extremely well," Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said of the Seminoles. "They played winning basketball. That's why beating them in this game was a well-earned victory."

Because it wasn't easy.

The Blue Devils didn't score for the first 6:17 of the game. And NCAA Player of the Year candidate Jahlil Okafor had just two points in the first half before getting into foul trouble.

But fellow freshman Tyus Jones helped pick up the slack, finishing with 16 points, 12 assists and six rebounds for the Blue Devils, who took a 45-31 lead on a 3-pointer from senior Quinn Cook (26 points) with 15:09 left.

But Florida State wouldn't go away.

The Seminoles shot 65 percent in the second half to keep the pressure on Duke.

"Once again we dug a hole that was difficult to climb out of," FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said.

"I thought our guys kept fighting, and I thought we showed a lot of willpower and made the necessary adjustments to go out and play a good team in the second half.

"We got beat by a team that was a little better than us tonight."

Michael Ojo had a career-high nine rebounds and three blocks and fellow junior Devon Bookert scored a career-high 23 points for the Seminoles, who are now 13-12 overall and 5-7 in the league.

With 6.7 seconds left and trailing by two, Hamilton had Bookert miss his second free throw intentionally.

The Seminoles couldn't get the rebound and Cook hit one free throw on the other end to extend the lead to three.

Krzyzewski then elected to foul Bookert again before he could get a potential game-tying 3 off and the Alaska native missed both (the second one again intentionally) and Duke held on for the three-point win.

"I wouldn't say it's a moral victory," Bookert said. "Because I don't think those count. But we're going in a positive direction."

It didn't end up coming in a win, but freshman Phil Cofer delivered the highlight of the year for the Seminoles in the first half when he took a pass from Bookert, took a step and then dunked over Okafor while getting fouled.

"He's a great player," said Cofer, who finished with nine points and four rebounds. "I wasn't trying to dunk it at first but coach told us to be aggressive going to the hole. So I was just trying to keep that in mind."

Montay Brandon scored all 12 of his points in the second half, Jarquez Smith added 11 and Robbie Berwick hit two big second-half 3's for Florida State, which had knocked off a Top 10 Duke squad six times in the past 12 years.

Although the Seminoles came close they couldn't pick up No. 7 on Monday night.

"Berwick's two 3's were huge," Krzyzewski said. "The second one he took, I thought he was checking in at the scorer's table. He was really far out. … That was a good win for us."

Florida State plays again on Saturday afternoon at Georgia Tech.