Jon Scheyer raves about ‘special’ performance by Jared McCain

Jared McCain scored a career-high 35 points as No. 9 Duke took down Florida State 76-67 on the road on Saturday.

The freshman guard cashed in on 8-of-11 (72.7 percent) 3-point attempts to go with four rebounds and three steals while playing 39 minutes on the floor. Blue Devils head coach Jon Scheyer couldn’t say enough about his former five-star recruit’s performance.

“It was a special performance. I’ve been lucky, in my 15 years but especially as a coach for 11, to see a lot of special performances by any player, but especially freshmen,” Scheyer said postgame. “And that was up there with any of them. It really was. For me, it was his grit. His will. His determination to win was special. So, I’m really proud of this win. Proud of our team, stepping up a little bit under-manned. We need to keep on building from here.”

Prior to Saturday’s win, McCain had proved his scoring abilities in the past having scored 20 or more points on six different occasions this season. He ranks third on Duke’s roster in scoring by averaging 13.8 points per game and is the team’s second best 3-point shooting at a 41.1 percent clip.

After the game, Scheyer explained how he felt like his team wasn’t giving the right mentality and effort at the beginning of the game — but McCain was there to save them on the offensive end. The Blue Devils were able to separate themselves from FSU thanks to a couple of McCain 3-pointers and they carried that momentum into the second half.

“I was thinking, ‘how can we get him the ball more?’ Clearly, he had it going. You could just see it,” Scheyer continued. “It’s hard, because with [Florida State], they switch everything. It’s not like you can call plays all the time. We got stuck a little bit, we got a little stagnant, playing too much one-on-one. But to their credit, that’s what they make you do. Jared manufactured a lot. … Not only did he have 35 but it was in critical moments too.”

The win improves Duke to 20-5 on the season and has won its last four games. Now, they will turn their attention toward a Wednesday road trip to Miami. This will be the first and only time the two teams match up this regular season. Opening tip from Coral Gables is scheduled for Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN.