Florida State Shocks Duke at Cameron

After 15 straight losses on Duke's fabled home floor, the Seminoles celebrated thier shocking upset of Duke like a bunch of damn college kids yesterday.

Al Thornton scored 21 points, Toney Douglas added 15 points and Uche Echefu had 12 for Florida State (17-6, 5-4) as they overcame a 17-point deficit and shut Duke down cold in the final minute to seal a 68-67 victory over the eighth-ranked Blue Devils.

It was the first victory for the Seminoles' at the famously rowdy Cameron Indoor Stadium, the players danced and celebrated in front of Duke's noisy student section.

"That was just a little excitement. We went over there and showed them a little love,'' Thornton said. ``I think we overdid it, but we apologize, though, that we did all that.''

``Duke has set a benchmark, and they set the bar awful high,'' Florida State coach Leonard Hamilton said. ``All the teams, especially the ones that are trying to become programs of significance or programs that are competitive year in and year out in the ACC, Duke has set a standard that most of us are being judged by.

``So to get a win here against a very good Duke team that's nationally ranked does a lot for your players' confidence and the morale of your program. But in order for this to be meaningful, we need to continue winning games.'' (AP)

Duke had two late chances after David McClure rebounded Douglas' miss with about 30 seconds left. The Blue Devils brought it downcourt and called timeout with 7.7 seconds left to set up their final play. DeMarcus Nelson inbounded the ball to Greg Paulus, and he missed a layup.

A jump ball was called on the rebound, and Duke got the ball back for one last heave with about 2 seconds left. However Josh McRoberts floater rimmed out.

It was delicious revenge for Florida State, which lost by one point in overtime in their last visit here, a bitter loss marked by critical technical foul mistakenly assessed to the Seminoles' Alexander Johnson. Still, in that game they led by two in the extra session before fading under the sharp shooting of J.J. Redick and physical presence of Shelden Williams.

The way the Blue Devils shot early, it appeared the Seminoles were headed for their 16th consecutive loss here. Duke burst out to a 27-10 lead midway through the first half behind 12 points from Paulus.

But the Seminoles countered with a 23-8 run and held the Blue Devils to one field goal in 7½ minutes and closed to 35-33 on Echefu's 3-pointer from the key with 1:23 before halftime. They took their first lead on Thornton's layup 65 seconds into the second half.

``When two good teams play, if one team spurts a little bit, usually the other team will spurt back,'' Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said. ``We played better than them for eight minutes, and then they played better than us for eight minutes.''

At halftime Duke retired the No. 4 jersey worn by Redick, the leading scorer in school and ACC history.

(AP, ESPN, Miami Herald)