February 4, 2007

Derek Redd, Osceola
Warchant.com

As the first Duke shot attempt flew through the air with seven seconds remaining ? and the second and the third just a few seconds later Sunday ? Florida State senior forward Al Thornton could do nothing but watch and hope.

"Please miss," he remembered thinking. "Please miss. We had so many of those, I thought it was going down. I was like, aw, d? vu."

The shots never fell and it wasn't d? vu all over again for the Seminoles. Duke's Greg Paulus, Josh McRoberts and DeMarcus Nelson all missed shots in the waning seconds, preserving Florida State's 68-67 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Seminoles' first win at Cameron in school history.

"It meant an awful lot to our players and to our program," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said, "because Duke has set a benchmark. They set the bar awful high."

It was FSU's (17-6, 5-4 in the ACC) first win at Cameron in 16 tries and eighth-ranked Duke's (18-5, 5-4 in the ACC) second straight conference loss.

Following a Duke timeout with 7.7 seconds remaining, Paulus missed a shot and the ball was tied up between FSU and Duke players. The possession arrow went to Duke with 4.2 seconds left and McRoberts and Nelson both missed lay-ups as time expired.

"The game could have gone either way," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said. "We were very fortunate. We've had enough happen to us this year with the (last-second) loss to Clemson and the (last-second) loss to Boston College, I guess it was just our time for something good to fall our way."

Hamilton put his team at a late disadvantage, getting called for a technical foul with 2:31 remaining. That allowed Jon Scheyer to hit two free throws and turn a three-point FSU lead into a one-point FSU lead. Hamilton said he was whistled for tossing his coat during a time out and figured the official thought he was still steamed about a non-call on Jason Rich a few plays earlier.

"To be honest," he said with a laugh after the game, "I was getting hot and just wanted to take off my coat."

The Seminoles went into halftime down just 36-33 despite a terrible start, missing their first four shots from the floor to fall behind 7-0 three minutes in. Duke point guard Greg Paulus outscored the entire FSU team in the game's first eight minutes. His 3-pointer at the 12:20 mark gave him 12 points for the game and gave Duke a 20-7 lead.

Duke led by as many as 17 in the first half before Florida State's shooting hands finally got warm. When Thornton drilled a 3-pointer at 10:47, it was the first of five FSU baskets from beyond the arc. Those threes, coupled with Josh McRoberts and Lance Thomas' foul trouble, allowed the Seminoles to claw back into the game.

"The kids came out so ready to play," Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We started out great and then we got all those fouls. It's like it was two different 10 minutes," he added, "because it was like two different teams out there with all the fouls."

FSU trailed by as few as two at 35-33 on Uche Echefu's second 3-pointer of the game. The Seminoles shot 50 percent from the 3-point line in the first half, but an uncharacteristic 57 percent from the free throw line (5-for-7). Echefu was the first half's biggest surprise. The sophomore, averaging 7.4 points per game, scored 12 in the first half against Duke, going 4-for-5 from the floor and 2-for-3 from 3-point range.

But Echefu's teammates said it was his job on McRoberts that was most important.

"I just didn't want him to touch the ball," Echefu said. "They run every play through him. I just wanted to limit his catches."

Thornton missed his first four shots, but led the Seminoles in scoring with a team-high 21 points, adding a game-high eight rebounds. Toney Douglas added 15 points for Florida State, including a team-high three 3-pointers, while Echefu added 12. Paulus scored a game-high 23 points, hitting four of six from 3-point range, while Nelson added 14 and McRoberts added 12.

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