Duke and Syracuse were in a tight game until it was 19-19 with 8:24 left in the first half. Then Duke went on a 21-2 run and that, as they say, was pretty much that. Duke ran away with the game, winning 77-55.
Syracuse’s 2-3 zone is notoriously difficult to overcome, but it doesn’t necessarily guard three point shooting very well and Duke has not done that very well this year. Well it wasn’t a problem Saturday as the Blue Devils hit 13-26 on threes while holding Syracuse to 6-16.
Boeheim’s zone has been effective for decades, but, three point shooting aside, this is a major key to this game: not counting the six threes, the Orange hit just 13 shots and finished at 19-55 overall for 34.