No. 9 Florida State Handles No. 7 Duke for Seminoles’ 12th Straight Victory; Xavier Rathan-Mayes Exacts Revenge on Grayson Allen

By MIKE McCURRY

Three down, three to go for No. 9 Florida State.

The Seminoles, in the midst of a brutal six-game stretch all against ranked opponents, improved to 3-0 during this critical juncture after an 88-72 win over No. 7 Duke on Tuesday.

With the victory, Florida State has now won 12 consecutive games–a program record. It’s also the first time ever that FSU has started out 4-0 in ACC play.

Despite usual stud Dwayne Bacon’s off-night (13 points on 6-of-15 shooting and 7 turnovers), the Seminoles were able to cruise mainly thanks to Xavier Rathan-Mayes‘ 21 points and a collective defensive effort that limited Duke to just 0.96 points per trip–the Blue Devils’ lowest mark since a loss to Utah back in December of 2015.

Rathan-Mayes, who was tripped by Duke’s Grayson Allen on Feb. 25, 2016 in one of Allen’s tripping incidents, said he had been looking forward to seeing him again.