Duke cruises to crown

ATLANTA — Jon Scheyer’s game revolves around the 3-point arc. A slashing driver to the rack he is not.
So when Scheyer put the ball on the deck and drove baseline in the second half against Florida State on Sunday, leapt into the air backward and flipped in a layup over his head, you just kind of knew it might not be FSU’s day to win its first-ever ACC Tournament.
The shot by Scheyer was part of a 15-0 Duke run midway through the second half that wound up sinking the Seminoles.
Duke, behind 29 points from its Tournament MVP, defeated FSU, 79-69, in front of a crowd of 26,353 at the Georgia Dome to win its first tournament title since the 2005-06 season.
“We’re ecstatic about being ACC champs,” said Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski. “I’m really happy for these guys, especially the guys in my junior class who have had to go through a couple of years where they didn’t have any upperclassmen. I’m really pleased for them to have won their championship.”
While Scheyer won the MVP, it could have just as easily gone to teammates Kyle Singler (14 points) or Gerald Henderson (27 points).
Really, the difference in this game was options. Duke had a plethora. FSU really only had one — senior guard Toney Douglas, who turned in another spectacular effort, scoring 28 points.
“He’s a great player,” Krzyzewski said. “He’s my favorite non-Duke player in the country. I mean, I love that guy. I talk about him a lot to our guys. They’re probably mad at me. He’s as good as there is in college. He’s a kid I’d love to coach, no question about it — and he was hard to stop.
“[But they were hard to stop, too, though,” added Krzyzewski, alluding to Scheyer, Singler and Henderson. “We had three that were pretty hard to stop today.”
Another key to Duke’s win was putting the clamps down on Seminoles freshman Solomon Alabi. The Blue Devils held the 7-footer to just 10 points, most of which came after the game had been decided.
Alabi seemed to have his way when the smallish Singler was defending him, but couldn’t get very much done after Krzyzewski put the goofy but effective 7-1 Brian Zoubek on him.
“[We] told him to just be ready,” Krzyzewski said, “and he came through.”
Duke led 35-21 at the half thanks to some wretched FSU shooting. The Seminoles, as they have been prone to do at many junctures this season, went into a deep freeze, connecting on just 5 of 23 first-half field goals.
However, after the break, they started to heat up. Douglas scored on consecutive drives to the hoop, then knocked down a 3-pointer. That was followed by another triple from teammate Deividas Dulkys.
A strong inside move a few minutes later by Ryan Reid pulled FSU to 42-36 before Scheyer responded with a 3-pointer and Duke got ready to make its big run.
“There were several times when I though we did a good job of contesting them,” said FSU coach Leonard Hamilton, “but great players make great plays.
“You have to give them credit. I thought they had a great defensive gameplan. They did a good job of bodying up…we lost to a team that deserved to be ACC champions today.”