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No. 4 Duke holds on to beat Florida St.

Feb 10, 2015 - 6:07 AM Tallahassee, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - Quinn Cook scored 26 points and No. 4 Duke held on to beat Florida State 73-70 on Monday night.

The Blue Devils have been upset often by Leonard Hamilton's Seminoles in the last 12 years and nearly let this one slip away, too.

They coughed up a 14-point lead early in the second half but made enough free throws down the stretch to secure a fourth consecutive win.

Tyus Jones added 16 points for Duke (21-3, 8-3 ACC), Jahlil Okafor scored 13 and Justise Winslow had 10.

Devon Bookert scored 17 of his career-high 23 points in the second half for the Seminoles (13-12, 5-7), who have beaten Duke six times since Hamilton took over in 2002, each time when the Blue Devils were ranked in the top 10.

"I thought Duke did a tremendous job of taking advantage of smoe of our youth and inexperience," said Hamilton. "They did such a good job of defending us in the first half and I thought they created a lot of indecision on our part."

They trailed by 14 five minutes into the second half before mounting a 17-6 run to pull within 51-48 on Robbie Berwick's NBA-range 3-pointer.

Duke was held without a field goal during the six-minute span but clung to its lead and later went up by 12.

Florida State trimmed it to four points with a 10-2 run and later got as close as one when Xavier Rathan-Mayes dribbled around Winslow and beneath the basket to score on a scoop shot with 11.9 seconds left.

That basket followed Michael Ojo's block of Jones, but Cook made two free throws to put the Blue Devils back up by three and Bookert missed three fouls shots -- two on purpose and one when he needed it the most.

Bookert missed the first of two free throws with 1.8 seconds left, leaving the Seminoles no real chance to tie the game.

Their six upsets of Duke since 2003 include two over No. 1-ranked Blue Devils teams and one in the ACC Tournament semifinals in 2012.

Duke has won four in a row since a 77-73 loss to Notre Dame on Jan. 28, which the Blue Devils avenged with a 90-60 blowout of the Irish on Saturday.

"They made some big time plays, but we responded," said Cook. "We deserved this win."

The Seminoles held Duke scoreless for the first 6:17 of the game and opened with an 8-2 run highlighted by Phil Cofer's flying, one-handed baseline dunk on Okafor.

But the Blue Devils used a 12-0 run later in the half to take control. Cook punctuated the flurry with consecutive 3-pointers to give Duke a 20-11 lead and it was 32-24 at halftime.

Game Notes

Montay Brandon scored 12 points for Florida State and Jarquez Smith had 11 ... Duke leads the all-time series 34-9 and has won three in a row over the Seminoles ... Duke plays Syracuse on the road Saturday ... Florida State is also on the road Saturday against Georgia Tech.