Down 2 starters, Duke survives vs. Florida State in ACC tourney — and accepts an ‘ugly win’

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — A win is a win, right?

“I mean, it’s an ugly win,” Duke forward Cameron Boozer said, “but on to the next.”

If only that was all No. 1 Duke had to worry about. But in the Blue Devils’ first litmus test without two critical starters — point guard Caleb Foster and center Patrick Ngongba, both of whom sustained injuries last week — the top-ranked team in college basketball needed Florida State to miss a buzzer-beater just to survive, 80-79, in the ACC tournament quarterfinals.

“We’re no excuses. We’ve got to step up with the team that we have,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “We’ve got to figure this out, though. I thought it put us in some tough positions tonight that you can’t really practice, and we’ll learn a lot from it.”

And Duke will have to, if it wants to not only win the league tournament for the third time in four seasons under Scheyer but also make a run to the program’s second straight Final Four.

Per ACC tournament policy, Foster and Ngongba did not speak to the media postgame. Instead, the pair — who average a combined 19.2 points, 9.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game — wheeled out of Spectrum Center on knee rover scooters, with walking boots on their injured right feet.

Foster suffered a broken right foot early on in Duke’s regular-season finale against rival North Carolina and will be out for the “foreseeable” future, according to Scheyer. There’s a chance if Duke makes the Final Four that Foster could return — à la Carlos Boozer in the 2001 NCAA Tournament, who played in the postseason despite breaking his foot in February — but that’s far from a guarantee. Ngongba, meanwhile, started experiencing foot soreness against NC State a week and a half ago, which caused Scheyer to preemptively hold him out both for the UNC game and this week’s ACC tournament. Duke expects Ngongba back for the NCAA Tournament, hopefully the start of it … but until then, this is the roster Scheyer has to work with.

One that is still flush with five- and four-star talent, but it clearly has work to do in figuring out its new rotation.

“Strategically, lineups, I can help our guys so much better,” Scheyer said. “Nobody has put their head down. I’m not going to allow any of our guys to do that. Again, I thought tonight we did a great job of weathering the storm.”

That was never more paramount than midway through the second half, when FSU — one of the hottest teams in America, which entered Thursday having won 10 of its last 12 games — went up 8 points, putting Duke in a position it’s rarely been in this season. But rather than falter or let the deficit grow, the Blue Devils responded with an overwhelming 19-2 run that put them right back into the game.

Key to that run was senior center Maliq Brown, the ACC Defensive Player of the Year and Sixth Man of the Year, who has started the last two games in Ngongba’s place. After registering a season-high 15 points against UNC in his first start this season, Brown followed with a game-high 12 rebounds against the Seminoles, plus 4 points, three assists, three steals and two blocks.

Meanwhile, Cayden Boozer — Cam’s twin brother, who has been Duke’s first guard off the bench most of the year — started in Foster’s stead. Despite struggling with foul trouble, the 6-foot-4 freshman finished with 9 points of his own, none bigger than an offensive rebound and put-back with 1:01 to play that proved to be the game-winning basket.

“My man didn’t block me out,” Cayden Boozer said of his final bucket. “I was wide open, so I was like, why not? Just score. So, it was pretty simple.”

Even if the larger game was anything but.

That’s mainly because Duke’s defense — which entered Thursday leading the nation in adjusted efficiency, per KenPom — allowed FSU to shoot 51.9 percent overall and make 11 3-pointers. Without Ngongba, Duke’s best rim protector, and Foster, a strong point-of-attack defender, the Seminoles got into their offense more easily than most Blue Devil foes have all season.

And offensively, Duke finished with 15 turnovers, its most in over two months … since the last time it played FSU, on Jan. 3, when it also had 15 giveaways. The Seminoles turned those into 18 points Thursday, regularly dinging the Blue Devils’ lackluster ballhandling without its normal point guard.

Next up for Duke is the winner of North Carolina and Clemson, in what should be a hard-fought semifinal. And while a loss wouldn’t push the Blue Devils off the No. 1 seed line, it may cost them the No. 1 overall seed and the path of least resistance in the NCAA Tournament.

So, yes, a win is a win. An ugly one.

But to go where the Blue Devils hope to, it’s going to take a lot more.