Duke Advances on Florida State’s Missed Last-Second Shot

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Isaiah Evans made seven 3-pointers and finished with a career-high 32 points, Atlantic Coast Conference Player and Rookie of the Year Cameron Boozer added 23 points and 10 rebounds, and No. 1-seed Duke survived a scare from No. 8-seed Florida State to beat the Seminoles 80-79 on Thursday night in the 2026 T. Rowe Price ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinals.

The Seminoles had a chance at an upset after Chauncey Wiggins blocked Boozer with seven seconds left, but Robert McCray V’s 3 at the buzzer rimmed out.

Maliq Brown came up with two huge defensive plays to turn the momentum of the game for No. 1 Duke, which had a 19-2 run in the second half after trailing by eight with 13 minutes left. Brown had 12 rebounds.

The Blue Devils (30-2) outrebounded Florida State 46-25 but needed to overcome 28 points from Lajae Jones and 25 from McCray for their ninth straight win. The Seminoles were 11-of-28 on 3s for the game.

Evans, who grew up in Charlotte and played high school basketball at nearby North Mecklenburg High, had 28 points against the Seminoles in Duke’s 91-87 victory in January. He was 11-of-20 from the field on Thursday night and 7-of-16 from beyond the arc.

Duke played without starting point guard Caleb Foster, who is out indefinitely with a broken right foot, and starting big man Patrick Ngongba II, who is sitting out this week’s ACC Tournament while dealing with his own foot issue.

Florida State led 35-34 at halftime and carried the momentum into the second half, building a 59-51 lead seven minutes in behind 10 quick points from McCray.

But Boozer scored on an offensive rebound and then drilled a 3 from the top of the key on consecutive possessions to ignite a 19-2 run. Brown, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year, had two steals during the run leading to Duke’s layups.

But Florida battled back to cut the lead to 80-79 behind Jones before McCray’s miss at the buzzer.