Fla. Gulf Coast routed by No. 9 Duke 88-67

[November 19, 2012]  DURHAM, N.C. (AP) -- Florida Gulf Coast got the start it wanted, and the finish that befalls so many other visitors to Cameron Indoor Stadium.

The Eagles played pretty even with No. 9 Duke on Sunday night -- except for the 30 straight points they allowed the Blue Devils in an 88-67 loss.

"If you're going to beat a team like Duke, you need to score," said coach Andy Enfield, a former Florida State assistant. "You can't shut them down for 40 minutes. ... When they went on their run tonight, we couldn't score."

Bernard Thompson had career highs of 24 points and six 3-pointers for the Eagles (2-2), who led for most of the first half but became the 96th straight non-ACC visitor to lose at Cameron.

Foul trouble, sloppy ball-handling and cold shooting during the last 5 1/2 minutes of the half ruined their chances at their first win over a Top 25 team and second victory in six days against an ACC program. They beat Miami by 12 last week.

Sherwood Brown added 12 points for Florida Gulf Coast, which finished with more turnovers (25) than field goals (23) and never got closer than 19 in the second half.

Mason Plumlee finished with a career-high 28 points and hit 10 of 11 free throws for Duke.

"Guys were setting me up ... They really found me in good positions," Plumlee said. "It's not like I was shooting jumpers. You shouldn't miss too many if you're shooting layups."

Freshman Rasheed Sulaimon added 19 points and Ryan Kelly had 14 points for the Blue Devils (3-0).

They scored 30 straight points -- including a 23-0 run to close the first half -- to brush off a slow start and cruise in this preliminary on-campus matchup in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament.

Plumlee surpassed his previous best of 25 points set against Marquette during his sophomore season in 2010, hitting 9 of 11 attempts from the field.

"They didn't have an answer for Mason inside," coach Mike Krzyzewski said. "We took advantage of that."

The 6-foot-10 forward, a 51 percent career free-throw shooter, had -- by far -- his best night from the stripe when he's gone there at least 10 times.

"People can't foul him now," Kelly said. "He's hitting them, and that's something he worked all summer, all offseason, to get better at, and it's shown."

And nobody was too upset over the only one he didn't make: Kelly put it back in, was fouled and converted the three-point play during Duke's huge run. With a smile after the game, Plumlee called it "a good miss."

Seth Curry added 10 points for the Blue Devils, who were playing five days after beating No. 3 Kentucky in Atlanta and four days before taking on Minnesota in the Bahamas. They overcame 18 turnovers by turning the Eagles' miscues into 36 points.

They haven't lost a nonconference game at Cameron since 2000, and surpassed their previous mark of 95 straight non-ACC wins here, set from 1983-95.

Yet for a while, this latest streak sure looked like it was in jeopardy.

The Eagles led for much of the way early behind some sharp 3-point shooting. Florida Gulf Coast hit 6 of its first 12 from beyond the arc and took a 30-29 lead on Filip Cvjeticanin's 3 with 5 1/2 minutes before the break.

That's when Duke finally got rolling. Guard Quinn Cook, who had nine assists in made his first start of the season, hit his second straight 3 a few seconds later to put the Blue Devils ahead to stay and start the overwhelming run. Kelly scored seven points during the burst while Cook ended it with a jumper with about 7 seconds left to make it 52-30.

"I've never heard of a 30 to nothing run," Enfield said. "First one I've been a part of. But the good news is, other than that, we played pretty well."

The Blue Devils then scored the first seven points of the second half, going up 59-30 on Plumlee's free throw with 18:34 left.

[Associated Press; By JOEDY McCREARY]

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