The Florida State men’s basketball team has been phenomenal all season. The ‘Noles are 16-1 on the season, 4-0 in the conference and are riding a program best 12-game winning streak after defeating the No. 7 Duke Blue Devils 88-72 at home on Tuesday night in front of a record-breaking 11,675 people.
Xavier Rathan-Mayes was on a mission in the second half racking up 18 of his 21 points allowing the Seminoles to coast to a victory and secure a statement win for University.
As a team, the ‘Noles are treading on ground that is unfamiliar to a lot of Seminole fans and players. They are currently riding the longest winning streak in Florida State basketball history and just played in and won the first top-10 matchup since 1993.
No. 9 Florida State did not just beat Duke, they ran the historic program out of the gym.
The Blue Devils led for just over three minutes of play, they had their largest led with nine minutes remaining in the first half when they led by 3-points.
The Stars that I have talked about so many times are played like they are capable of. Sophomore Dwayne Bacon finished the night with 13-points, five assist, and six rebounds. Freshman Jonathan Isaac contributed 11 of his own and come up with a huge momentum killing block in the second half.
Yet, it was not the stars that ran the Blue Devils out of Tallahassee, it was the depth.
Florida State has one of the deepest benches in the country, Bacon was the lone guy to play over 30-minutes in the game for the ‘Noles while 10 different Seminoles played at least 10-minutes.
“No matter what we do we can’t stimulate their athleticism in a practice,” Duke associate head coach Jeff Chapel told media following the loss. “The constant pressure and waves of guys they bring in can’t be stimulated and that’s what makes it hard.”
Duke came into the game with an injury plagued team, and it cost them. Six men played at least 21-minutes for Duke. Luke Kennard played all 40-minutes of action and Jayson Tatum was trailing right behind him with 38-minutes on the court. Both Kennard and Tatum had traffic nights respectively contributing over 20-points each but they were gassed and left Duke without the spark when they needed to make a push late in the second half of action.
The Seminoles are a unique team in the fact that when they sub it seems almost as if you are watching hockey. You don’t see teams make line changes very often in basketball but the Seminoles have the ability and depth to sub in five guys at a time. Florida State’s bench outscored Duke’s 21-4.
Florida State has won three consecutive matchups against ranked opponents, but the road of tough matchups is far from over. The ‘Noles will travel to North Carolina to square off with the No. 11 Tar Heels on Saturday at 2 P.M. Following the bout with the Tar Heels the ‘Noles return home to play No. 20 Notre Dame and No. 14 Louisville in a three day period.
