Duke guard Matt Jones knifed into the teeth of the Syracuse zone, forced Rakeem Christmas to step up in the paint and dropped in a bounce pass for a Jahlil Okafor uncontested dunk.

The play came 47 seconds into the second half and cut the Orange’s lead over the Blue Devils to one. But more importantly, it laid the groundwork for a half in which Duke shrunk its lineup and deconstructed the zone at the seams.

While many Atlantic Coast Conference teams have tried to shoot over top of SU’s 2-3 zone, the No. 4 Blue Devils rode the opposite approach to an eight-point win in the Carrier Dome on Saturday. Syracuse (16-9, 7-5 ACC) now pivots to host No. 12 Louisville (20-5, 8-4) at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, and the Cardinals — who will be shorthanded after the indefinite suspension of starting point guard Chris Jones — would be smart to attack Jim Boeheim’s patented defense in a similar way.

“I think at the start we were a little shook up by the 2-3 and stuff like that, but once we got rolling we were comfortable,” Matt Jones said after Saturday’s game. “… We had to drive into the zone and create space in it and that was key for us.”

In the first half, Duke’s guards were swinging the ball instead of putting it on the floor and the Blue Devils settled for long jumpers as a result. Then Duke shifted its approach in the second, as Matt Jones and guards Quinn Cook and Tyus Jones drove from the perimeter to free up space inside. And for most of the half, small forward Justise Winslow camped out in the high post while Okafor bullied the Orange on the block.

The result was 44 second-half points, as the Blue Devils shot 62 percent from the field after shooting 39 percent in the first. In total, Duke scored eight more points in the second half while taking 15 fewer shots.

Going inside led to 11 Orange fouls and the Blue Devils shot 15-of-16 from the free-throw line in the closing frame. By opting to dribble past the ACC’s sixth-best 3-point shooting defense as of Tuesday, Duke’s 80 points were the fifth most Syracuse has given up this season.

“Our attack of the zone was a little bit better with those four perimeter guys,” Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski said.

To have four ball-handlers in the game, Matt Jones played 18 second-half minutes in place of starting power forward Amile Jefferson. The Cardinals — whose bench depth is comparable to Syracuse’s — don’t have that luxury but are still built to beat the zone off the dribble.

Without Chris Jones, the Cardinals still have Terry Rozier, the conference’s third leading scorer, and will likely fill the void with a combination of freshman Quentin Snider and sophomore Anton Gill. Neither reserve guard is playing more than 10 minutes per game this season, and they’ve combined to hit 11-of-49 3s on the year.

After Louisville’s now-revolving backcourt, forward Wayne Blackshear is a multi-faceted wing scorer who can attack the zone like Winslow did, and Montrezl Harrell — averaging 15.4 points and 9.3 rebounds per game — is similar to Okafor in that he’ll lurk behind the zone and benefit from his teammates’ penetration.

So if Rozier and Co. can dribble into the cracks of the zone and find these other scorers, Chris Jones’ absence won’t sting until the Cardinals square off with Miami at home on Saturday.

It was Duke that stifled Louisville by dropping into a zone on Jan. 17. The Cardinals shot 4-of-25 from 3 and lost by 11, and currently rank 12th out of 15 ACC teams shooting 31 percent from deep. But now the Blue Devils have returned the favor by providing the latest blueprint on how to break the SU defense down.

And it’s one Louisville is still more than capable of following.

“When they were penetrating, I think everybody was kind of scrambling around and people were getting lost on defense a little bit,” SU forward Tyler Roberson said after the Duke game.

“I think that hurt us.”

Published on February 18, 2015 at 12:14 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse