Two Big Takeaways: FSU Falls to Duke

DURHAM, N.C. — Despite scoring 93 points and committing just 11 turnovers, Florida State dropped a thriller to Duke inside Cameron Indoor on Saturday afternoon, 100-93.

More: Blue Devils Outlast FSU in Durham, 100-93

FSU’s leading scorer endured a rough outing — Terance Mann was scoreless for more than 29 minutes before finishing with nine points on 2 for 6 shooting — but the Noles were in position to win late in the second half. However, the Seminoles went cold and failed to score from the field for final 1:10.

Cofer, Angola show out

On a day dominated by scoring, two Seminoles stood above the rest. Seniors Phil Cofer and Brian Angola each eclipsed 20 points and combined for 11 3-pointers. Cofer scored 22 of his career-high 28 points in the first half, while Angola provided timely trey after timely trey en route to finishing with a career-high 23 points of his own.

The two also combined for 14 rebounds on a day where the Seminoles struggled mightily against the bigs of Duke.

“[Cofer] is an athlete. He has competitive spirit,” FSU head coach Leonard Hamilton said. “For him to overcome the type of injuries he’s had, he never complains, he’s had a great attitude.

“He’s consciously demanding excellence from his teammates. He leads by example on and off the court.”

Rebounding woes doom Noles

As good as the Seminoles were offensively, they were just as bad at rebounding, both on offense and defense.

Duke forward Marvin Bagley III, in addition to scoring 32 points, grabbed 21 rebounds – 11 of them offensive rebounds. The Blue Devils secured 23 offensive rebounds – more than doubling FSU’s nine.

Duke’s Wendell Carter Jr. also amassed double-digit rebounds with 16.

“We just didn’t have an answer for keeping Bagley and Carter off the glass,” Hamilton said.

Much of FSU’s rebounding issues were a result of the absence of starting center Chris Koumadje, who was sidelined again with a nagging lower extremity injury. The 7-foot-4 center was averaging seven points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 blocks before missing the last 10 games for the Seminoles.

“There’s no doubt that Koumadje is a centerpiece of our program. He’s athletic, he’s extremely competitive,” Hamilton said. “But I’m not going to use that as an excuse.

“We lost to a team today that had a little more firepower than we did.”

Joshua Mixon is the lead columnist for The Daily Nole. You can find him on Twitter @JoshDMixon.