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Following its biggest win of the year over NC State, Syracuse had its most important game of the season against Duke. The Orange last beat the Blue Devils in the Dome on Feb. 22, 2017, off a buzzer-beater game-winner from John Gillon.

The Orange led for close to nine minutes in the first half, but a 21-2 run from Duke put the game away. Joe Girard III led SU with 20 points on 4-for-7 shooting from deep, and Jeremy Roach led the Blue Devils with 17 points. This was Syracuse’s largest loss since falling to Illinois at the end of November in the Big 10/ACC Challenge.

Here are some observations from Syracuse’s 77-55 loss to Duke:

Guarding the 3

Syracuse last struggled against the deep shot versus Virginia Tech, allowing the Hokies to score 11 3-pointers in the first half alone. The Blue Devils aren’t as good as a 3-point shooting team, but they realized shooting from range was the best way to attack Syracuse’s zone early.

Dariq Whitehead was Duke’s main weapon in the first half, going 3-for-4 from beyond the arc. Whitehead first struck midway through the opening period, following a dunk from Judah Mintz in transition. He nailed a wide-open 3-pointer from the left wing off a pass from Mark Mitchell, positioning himself on the opposite side of the court less than two minutes later.

Whitehead calmly collected the ball from Mitchell again following a 3-pointer from Benny Williams. Whitehead drilled the jumper, silencing the Dome crowd. The Blue Devils continued to shoot from the corners and wings, hitting five 3-pointers during a 21-2 run to end the first half.

The Orange started to extend their zone, something they’ve done in the past when teams have bombarded them from deep. Girard and Mintz kept their heels at the 3-point line instead of their toes. Sometimes, wings like Maliq Brown or Justin Taylor would do the same. The defensive changes worked for the most part, holding the Blue Devils to five 3-pointers in the second half, but the first half hole was too much to overcome.

The battle between star freshmen

Freshman phenom Kyle Filipowski is at the forefront of Duke’s balanced attack, averaging 15.1 points per game and 9.1 rebounds per game. He’s won the conference’s rookie of the week award seven times. The second closest rookie is Mintz, who’s won the honor four times, including last week.

Filipowski was lethal near the basket tonight, showing his skill with a layup after a Duke offensive rebound. Mintz missed his first two shots, but six minutes in, he crossed over, spun to his left and dropped the ball in with his left hand off the glass to cut Duke’s lead to one.

A minute later, Mintz stole the ball from Jacob Grandison, who had just come down with an offensive rebound. He took off and hammered the ball down before quickly making creating another steal to set up a Girard transition three. Mintz continued to make a difference in transition, finishing the first half with three steals, one more than his ACC-leading season average.

It took 14 minutes for Filipowski to get his second basket, which came on an easy layup after Whitehead stole the ball from Girard. Then, Filipowski grabbed the rebound off a missed fadeaway from Taylor. He gave it to Tyrese Proctor, who quickly passed it back Filipowski didn’t hesitate to drill the 3 at the top of the key.

Filipowski nailed another 3-pointer with nine minutes left in the game but Mintz quickly answered back from the left wing with his second 3-pointer of the night. Mintz knocked the ball out of Filipowski’s hands shortly after as well, leading to an empty possession for the Blue Devils.

Mintz won the one-on-one battle against Filipowski, recording 18 points compared to Filipowski’s 14.

Jesse MIA, Joe comes alive

Like every other team in the ACC, Duke knew that Syracuse’s offense would be stagnant unless Girard or Jesse Edwards carried the scoring load. The Blue Devils basically shut down both veteran players for the majority of the game, holding them to a combined 14 points through the first 24 minutes of play. Mintz had 15 points during that time.

Edwards was routinely double-teamed in the paint, but he still tried to take on both defenders. Once, after Edwards coughed up the ball down low, it rolled right to Brown for an easy layup. But, most of the time, turnovers resulted as possession switched over to Duke.

Quadir Copeland gave the ball to Edwards inside when he had just one defender on him. But Edwards lost the ball trying to spin to his left, leading to a coast-to-coast layup for Mitchell.

Girard hit a 3-pointer midway through the second half, taking on Roach one-on-one on the ensuing possession. He crossed to his left, causing Roach to fly in the opposite direction before rising up for the three. His attempt ricocheted off the back of the rim and rolled in.

Mintz went out of the game briefly after being hit in the eye, leaving Girard completely in charge of the offense. He immediately rose up from deep again, draining a shot from the left corner.

Once again, rebounding

Duke is one of the best offensive rebounding teams in the country, with an offensive rebounding rate of 37.3%. The Orange have done better in previous games against some of the ACC’s best rebounding teams but the Blue Devils’ size still made a difference early.

Duke had collected two offensive rebounds by the Under-16 timeout. Mitchell notched the first, grabbing the ball over Chris Bell before the ball eventually made it to Filipowski, who flipped it in.

Taylor made a difference on the boards briefly, recording three defensive rebounds in the first half to help Edwards inside. But, he couldn’t do much against Dereck Lively, who easily got an offensive rebound with 4:45 in the first half. Lively then kicked it out to Roach, who had enough time to set his feet before nailing the 3.

In the second half, Filipowski missed from deep at the right wing. The ball soared over Edwards right into the arms of Roach, who immediately leapt up and nailed the wide-open jumper.

Published on February 18, 2023 at 8:22 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu