Seminoles Handle Duke -- Again

Duke seems to bring out the best in Florida State.

For the second consecutive year, the struggling Seminoles upset Duke at Tallahassee, Fla., and moved out of the Atlantic Coast Conference cellar, pushing the fifth-ranked Blue Devils two games behind first-place Maryland with a 75-70 victory Sunday night.

Adam Waleskowski sandwiched a left-handed hook and a dunk around two free throws by Tim Pickett in the final 18 seconds as Florida State handed the Blue Devils their third straight conference road loss.

“Our guys made big shots and big plays at the end,” first-year Florida State Coach Leonard Hamilton said.

“We want this to be a regular occurrence,” Hamilton said. “We don’t want to storm the floor just because we beat someone we’re not supposed to.”

Last season, the Seminoles, under Steve Robinson, shocked then-No. 1 Duke with a 77-76 victory that ended the defending national champions’ 22-game winning streak.

Shooting was pretty much the story of Sunday’s game. The Seminoles (11-8, 2-6 ACC) shot 60% from the field and limited Duke (14-3, 4-3) to 34.7%.

“We missed shots that we’ve hit a lot of times,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “We could never get the lead.”

Dahntay Jones, Duke’s leading scorer with a 17.6 average, finished with a season-low two points and fouled out with 1:42 left.

No. 10 Maryland 85, Loyola (Md.) 58 -- The Terrapins opened the game at College Park, Md., with a 14-0 run and cruised to their fifth straight victory.

Ryan Randle scored 17 points and Steve Blake had 10 assists for the Terrapins (14-4), who extended their home winning streak to eight with their eighth straight win over the Greyhounds (4-15), who committed 27 turnovers. They’ve lost four in a row and eight of nine.

It was the final nonconference game of the season for the defending NCAA champions, who went 8-3 outside the Atlantic Coast Conference.

No. 17 Wake Forest 79, North Carolina 75 -- Josh Howard had a career-high 32 points, including a key three-point play with 21 seconds left at Chapel Hill, N.C.

The Demon Deacons (15-2, 5-2 ACC) shot 65.4% in the second half and are off to their best start since going 18-1 in 1996-97.

Howard was 11 for 20 from the field and made eight of nine free throws. His previous best outing was 31 points at Wisconsin earlier this season.

The Tar Heels (11-9, 2-5) suffered their season-high fourth consecutive loss despite having five players in double figures for the first time since last February.

St. John’s 77, Miami 74 -- Freshman Elijah Ingram, who leads the Big East in three-point shooting percentage (41.5%), made all five of his long-range attempts over the final 10 minutes to lead the Red Storm (11-6, 4-3) at Madison Square Garden.

Ingram, who had a career-high 21 points, didn’t score against the Hurricanes (9-9, 2-5) until he started making his three-pointers, including two from well beyond the NBA arc.