Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse basketball team takes on the No. 3 Duke Blue Devils at 7 p.m., Monday at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, North Carolina.
The game will air on ESPN.
See in-game team and individual stats here.
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Syracuse Men’s basketball vs Duke in Durham
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Final: Duke 101, Syracuse 64
Duke obliterates Syracuse, handing the Orange its largest defeat since the 39-point debacle at DePaul in 2006.
The Blue Devils shot 72% in the second half, outscoring SU 61-40, after using a late-half surge to build a 16-point lead at halftime.
Syracuse fought back from one Duke scoring spurt to come within five points with less than 3 minutes to play in the first half. But the Blue Devils exploded for a 19-2 run to close the half and open the second frame to put the result on ice.
Cameron Boozer, a projected top-5 NBA draft pick later this year, finished with a game-high 22 points and 12 rebounds.
At one point around the midway mark of the second half, Duke was shooting 91% from the floor in the half.
It was the ugliest chapter yet in a series that has become lopsided since the two were considered peers when SU joined the ACC in the 2013-14 season.
Here’s how our Syracuse Sports Insiders appraise this one. Join the conversation here to get a direct text line to Brent Axe.
Duke is very impressive. They are so loaded with talent. Maliq Brown was a star at Syracuse but blends into the background at Duke. How many years have past since Elijah Hughes’ heave from 60 feet to close the gap at halftime? We all long to see a return to Orange teams that are competitive with the Elites. – Richard B.
Talent wise, it was like watching a professional team vs a high school team. Kyle (bless his heart) was the only one that came to play. – Paul L.
Duke did exactly what we all thought Duke would do tonight. I stand by red and the guys until John Wildhack tells me not to. We had good shots early but they didn’t go in. Those are the baskets that needed to be made to plant the seeds for a major upset. The winner of the Duke and Michigan game on Saturday at the very least for a national championship this year. – Rob T.
Second half
Syracuse’s worst loss in the ACC is a 36-point loss at North Carolina in 2024 (Autry’s first season). That was also the program’s worst defeat since the debacle at DePaul in 2006.
We’re in that kind of territory.
Duke will easily cover the huge 20.5-point spread.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 92, Syracuse 59, with 3:13 remaining in the second half
Kingz finally gets a shot up out of the timeout but misses the corner 3.
Brown catches and slams home a lob off the inbounds to push the lead back to 31. Brown has six points.
Kiyan Anthony slaps the arm of Darren Harris on a fast-break layup with 6:34. Officials went to the replay to see if it rose to the level of a flagrant foul, but it did not.
Harris is having a nice little sequence here. He hustles to a loose ball way in the backcourt, beating Anthony to the ball. After a teammate botched the lay-up, Harris drains a 3 on the next possession.
These are the kind of loses that occurred in the early 1960s before Freddie Lewis took over the program. That’s how far we have to go back when we were consistently overmatched by upper echelon teams and completely non competitive. Before Dave Bing came to Cuse. – Bruce K.
Join the conversation here to get a direct text line to Brent Axe.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 81, Syracuse 52, with 7:16 remaining in the second half
Beautiful pass in the lane by Brown to Ngongba for the dunk. Then Brown pokes away a pass and gets a transition dunk to himself. Duke leads by 31.
Kiyan Anthony has hit a pair of 3s, the second of which cutting the deficit to 24, for a moment.
Kingz, eight points in the first half, has not taken a shot in the second half.
Neither has Betsey or George.
It makes no sense.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 68, Syracuse 40, with 11:39 remaining in the second half
Khamenia hits a corner 3 as Starling tries to close out with a hand up. The Blue Devils have opened up a 26-point lead with 13 minutes to play.
After five misses from Kyle at the line to open the game, Starling hits the team’s first free throw for the Orange (1-for-6 for the game).
Eye-opening stat of the night: Duke is shooting 90.9% (10-for-11; 4-for-4 from 3) from the field in the second half at the under-12 media timeout.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 58, Syracuse 37, with 14:03 remaining in the second half
Duke comes out firing in the second half, grabbing a 48-26 lead with 18:36 remaining in regulation.
The Blue Devils got 3s by Evans and Caleb Foster.
Syracuse is on the brink of getting run out of the gym. Duke is on a 19-2 run over the last 4 minutes.
Syracuse drops into a 2-3 zone, though this has devolved into a get-to-Saturday (vs. North Carolina) kind of evening.
NBA scouts are in attendance, per usual at Duke, which is a nice silver lining for Kyle tonight. He’s got 12 points, to go with two blocks, two steals and three rebounds.
Cameron Boozer has 20 points and 11 rebounds. No one on SU can match up with him.
Just feels like we are getting out bodied on both sides – Buddy P.
Join the conversation here to get a direct text line to Brent Axe.
Halftime: Duke 40, Syracuse 24
Duke used an 11-0 run in the final couple of minutes to surge to a 16-point halftime lead.
The Orange trailed by just five with less than 3 minutes to play in the half before Duke turned on the jets.
Duke built an 11-point lead earlier in the first half behind another 16-3 run. Star freshman Cameron Boozer has a double-double at the break with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
SU’s Donnie Freeman and JJ Starling, the two pieces SU built its team around, have been a non-factors, held to just five points on 2-for-11 shooting, including 1-for-7 from 3.
Here’s what Brent Axe and our Syracuse Sports Insiders had to say about this one at the end of the game. Join the conversation here to get a direct text line to Axe.
One of the worst half’s I’ve seen Donnie play – but did we see a single play drawn up for him to get him some easy looks? – Chuck P.
Freeman is not performing. TV announcers just talked about that. Sad to have gotten so close and then give it up so quickly. – Kay S.
Not much effort to go inside by Freeman. He’s got to go inside. Let Betsey fire from outside. Freeman also needs to get tough rebounding. That also cannot be done from outside the arc – Tom K.
First half
Cayden Boozer is the recipient of a open corner 3 after Cameron Boozer collapses the defense. That pushes the Duke lead back to eight after the Orange trimmed an 11-point deficit to five with less than 3 minutes to play in the first half.
After a missed 3 from Tyler Betsey, Ngongba hits a pair of free throws, and just like that the Blue Devil lead is back in double figures.
Kingz throws away a pass at one end, and Cameron Boozer gets a pair of layups to give Duke its largest lead of the half.
Boozer has 12 points and 10 rebounds.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 28, Syracuse 22, with 3:56 remaining in the first half
Kingz, averaging 17.8 points per game over his last five games, buries two 3s, including one where he drops low to keep his dribble before popping up, to pull the Orange within six.
Kingz and Kyle have been the playmakers for SU here in the first half. Kyle got a putback dunk and dribbled from the the elbow to finish through contact.
Duke led by as many as 11. Kyle is 0-for-3 from the free throw line. No other SU player has gotten to the line.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 21, Syracuse 12, with 8:40 remaining in the first half
Former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown, in the game for the first time, earns a trip to the free throw line.
Duke has methodically gone on a 9-0 scoring run by getting stop after stop before Naithan George uses a high screen to nail an open 3.
Anthony gets beat off a quick cut to the basket by Nikolas Khamenia. Then Isaiah Evans nails a 3, prompting Autry to call timeout.
Syracuse is really struggling to score the basketball.
SCORE UPDATE: Duke 11, Syracuse 9, with 11:49 remaining in the first half
Lots of Duke royalty in attendance. Mike Krzyzewski is sitting next to Steve Wojciechowski. Cooper Flagg is in the building tonight, with the NBA on All-Star break.
Syracuse starts 4-for-12 from the field, including 1-for-5, and 0-of-2 from the line.
Duke has doubled up SU on the glass, 12-6. Adrian Autry has had a couple exasperated reactions to his team’s rebounding effort.
Autry turns to a lineup of George, Anthony, Kingz, Souare and White midway through the first half.
SCORE UPDATE: Syracuse 9, Duke 7, with 14:17 remaining in the first half
Duke has defeated SU 10 straight times, but Syracuse gets off to a fine start here in a hostile environment. JJ Starling hit an uncontested corner 3 and threw a lob to William Kyle.
Kyle has a pair of blocks. On the second, he rotated over to swat Patrick Ngongba’s soft hook, leading to a fast-break dunk by Nate Kingz.
Duke is living off second-chance opportunities. It outrebounded the Orange, 7-2 at the start of the game, leading to six second-chance points.
Pregame
Syracuse is bumping along down the stretch as it attempts to peak before postseason play. It will take a flawless or near flawless finish to be seriously considered as an NCAA Tournament team.
There are five games remaining in the regular season, beginning with tonight’s nationally televised “Big Monday” clash with Duke (23-2, 12-1 ACC).
The Blue Devils are a problem at home. They notched their 29th straight home win on Saturday against Clemson, joining Miami (Ohio) and Akron for the longest active home win streak in Division I.
Duke coach Jon Scheyer is 60-3 at Cameron Indoor Stadium. Losses: Arizona (Nov. 10, 2023); Pittsburgh (Jan. 20, 2024); North Carolina (March 9, 2024).
Duke is a 20.5-point favorite.
The Blue Devils enter the game ranked No. 2 in the NCAA’s NET behind only Michigan. The Wolverines, ranked No. 1 in this week’s Associated Press Top 25 poll, and Blue Devils are set to meet Saturday at Capitol One Arena in Washington, D.C.
The Orange (15-11, 6-7) is coming off a 79-78 victory two days ago against SMU in which coach Adrian Autry benched senior guard JJ Starling in the second half in favor of freshman Kiyan Anthony.
He scored 13 second-half points over 16 minutes. Autry said after the game Starling would be needed for Monday’s game at Cameron.