DURHAM, N.C. — Frank Jackson scored a season-high 22 points to lead No. 17 Duke to a 75-70 victory over No. 15 Florida State on Tuesday night. Box Score (HTML) | Box Score (PDF) | Photos
The freshman who is averaging 9.9 points per game, shot 8 for 15 from the floor and made 3 of his 4 attempts from 3-pointers in 33 minutes.
“I try to stay aggressive. I try to look for the open guy. I try to get to the basket,” Jackso said.
“The basket was open tonight and I was able to attack and my teammates, they give me all the confidence in the world. I try to stay as aggressive as I can.
“That’s my game. I can get to the basket and [the coaches] just tell me to be myself. Obviously, it was our last game in Cameron for the season and I wanted to make the most of it.”
Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski added about Jackson: “Well he is an attacker. Frank is unbelievably talented and tough.
“Just the growth of a freshman and you could see it at Miami. He just was different; he was better.”
Luke Kennard stars for the Duke Blue DevilsLuke Kennard finished with 17 points and six rebounds, while freshman Jayson Tatum ended with 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks for the Blue Devils (23-7, 11-6 Atlantic Coast Conference).
Amile Jefferson added 14 points and 11 rebounds in his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium for Duke, which led by as many as 19 points early in the second half and shot 45.8 percent overall to avenge the loss to the Seminoles last month in Tallahassee.
“It’s an amazing feeling to be here in this moment with this group,” he said, “Yes, it’s my Senior Night, but it was this team’s last game in Cameron as a group. I love these guys.
“I try to lay my heart out on the floor every time I’m in Cameron because that’s what our fans, that’s what our program, that’s what Duke, is built on.
“To leave out with a win and the way we did, to get contributions from everybody, was nothing short of excellent.”
Dwayne Bacon led Florida State with 19 points on 6 for 9 shooting and Xavier Rathan-Mayes had 15 for the Seminoles (23-7, 11-6), who had just eight assists and had their two-game winning streak snapped.
“I thought Duke’s pressure created a lot of problems for us in the first half,” FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said.
“It kind of stifled us and we had very little ball movement and execution on the offensive end.
“They overplayed us quite a bit and it seemed as though they took us out of any type of offensive rhythm.
“…They’re a good basketball team. Tonight they just played an awful lot, a lot, better than we did tonight.”
He added: “We kind of ditched what we had normally been doing because we had such a difficult time running our offense.
“We went to a smaller lineup and attacked the basket off the dribble, got to the foul line a little bit and were able to create some offense by driving the ball to the basket.”
Florida State with finish off the regular season at home against No. 25 Miami on Saturday.
Meanwhile, guard Grayson Allen, who missed the defeat to Miami on Saturday with an ankle injury, played just 16 minutes off the bench and finished with a season-low two points, with two rebounds and no assists and shot a 1-of-3 from the floor.
Coach Krzyzewski was too bothered by the low-key night by Allen, stating: “We’ve got to get him healthy because he’s too valuable for us.”
The Blue Devils close out their regular season fixtures at No. 5 North Carolina on Saturday night.
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