DURHAM, N.C. — It didn’t fit the rest of the script: Trevor Cooney running to the elbow, rising up without a defender in his personal space and sending a mid-range jumper into the bottom of the net.

But too much of the script was already written for the jump shot to have any pull on the game’s result. There was no reaction from a Syracuse bench that had spent close to 38 minutes trying to will its team back into the game. No one stood. Only a few hands lightly clapped.

Duke, having already subbed out Jahlil Okafor and Quinn Cook to standing ovations, had entered cruise control. The scoreboard showed 1 minute, 42 seconds and a 16-point Blue Devils lead.

“We got a few open looks but there was just a lid on the basket,” SU forward B.J. Johnson said. “We shot a pretty poor percentage and whenever you shoot poorly against a good team it’s going to be hard to win.”

Syracuse (18-11, 9-7 Atlantic Coast) was buried by its own offensive deficiencies from the start in an eventual 73-54 loss to No. 4 Duke (26-3, 13-3) at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night. In all, the Orange shot 19-of-62 from the field and 3-of-20 from 3, 31 and 15 percent, respectively. After Cooney (13), Rakeem Christmas (11), Michael Gbinije (12) and Tyler Roberson (16), SU’s other four players scored just two points in a combined 60 minutes.

Then add 15 turnovers, Christmas fouling out with 9:42 to go and a relentless Blue Devil defense that yielded less space with each passing possession and it was something resembling the perfect storm.

“I thought for the most part, we competed on defense but you’ve got to make shots to be in the game with the fourth-ranked team in the country,” SU head coach Jim Boeheim said. “We didn’t make shots.”

Duke was able to contain Cooney, Christmas and Gbinije all at once, a feat that few teams have accomplished this season. The last squad to fully do so was St. John’s on Dec. 6 when Chris McCullough was healthy and his legs were fresh, and SU lost that game by a dozen points.

Blue Devils head coach Mike Krzyzewski put Cook on Gbinije — after the forward scored 28 in the teams’ first meeting — and Matt Jones on Cooney. Aside from those matchups, Duke had players sag off Roberson and the SU guard opposite Cooney, which made it hard for the Orange to find Christmas in the paint.

By focusing its attention elsewhere, Duke allowed Roberson to lead Syracuse in scoring for the first time this season. The result was the team’s flattest offensive display to date.

“We were able to keep Gbinije out of the paint and part of that was we did something a little bit different defensively and it clogged up the paint a little more,” Krzyzewski said. “It helped against Christmas and against their penetration, so that was good.

“(Tyus) Jones was the main guy who had to do that and he did a really good job of that.”

Jones, who guarded either Kaleb Joseph or Ron Patterson throughout, mostly floated in and out of the lane to deter the Orange from getting to the rim. And as the game wore on and no secondary scoring option emerged, it turned into a foot race that Syracuse couldn’t compete in.

With Christmas fouled out and the offense running without a post threat in the stretch run, Duke stiff-armed all feeble comeback attempts and drained the clock at leisure.

After the Blue Devils played keep away for close to 30 seconds, Grayson Allen found Matt Jones in the corner and he effortlessly knocked down a 3. Then Patterson charged down the court as the game’s final seconds ticked away. He got all the way to the 3-point line at the top of the arc with a second or two remaining and, with no defenders in sight, unleashed a shot that nosedived into the from rim and bounced out.

Patterson gave the rim a sideways look with a light smile on his face. The look said it all.

“I thought we played all right but we didn’t get the ball in the basket,” Boeheim said.

“You have to do that, particularly down here.”

Published on March 1, 2015 at 12:06 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse