Get the latest Syracuse news delivered right to your inbox. Subscribe to our sports newsletter here.

Jim Boeheim pointed at Justin Taylor to get up from the bench. With Joe Girard III and Jesse Edwards completely locked up by Duke’s defense, Judah Mintz not able to do everything on his own and Chris Bell struggling, it was Taylor’s chance to heal SU’s offensive woes.

Taylor worked alone on the left side, looking to attack the basket before turning and heaving a fadeaway jumper. The ball landed in Kyle Filipowski’s hands after missing every part of the rim and the Blue Devils took off in transition. Filipowski drained a 3 from the top of the key.

Taylor pump-faked from three-point range and charged to the basket on the ensuing possession. He tried to lay it in off the glass but was denied by Dereck Lively II, who caught his own block and led Duke the other way. Jeremy Roach easily maneuvered into the lane and finished despite contact from Edwards.

Roach yelled for an “and-one” call which never came. But the Blue Devils didn’t really need it. Roach’s basket had just capped a 21-2 run over the span of six minutes. The game was tied at 19-19 but the scoring streak gave the Blue Devils a complete hold on the game. They scored five 3-pointers during that span, and more importantly, exposed the Orange’s year-long problem offensively.

“We got no help from the 3 position,” head coach Jim Boeheim said. “We tried four different people there, but we could get nothing going from that position.”

The reason why the Orange had to rely on Taylor, Bell and Benny Williams to at least aid the offense was because of Edwards’ struggle inside. Edwards tied the game up at 19-19 with a layup but that was one of the only times the Blue Devils allowed him to find the bottom of the net.

Duke didn’t even allow Edwards to get into the lane on most possessions, Boeheim said. The Blue Devils head coach said it was hard to game plan against Edwards because of his success offensively this season. But the Blue Devils were in the perfect situation with a player as “unique” as Lively to combat Edwards, said Duke head coach Jon Scheyer.

“I thought we did a good job in the paint of helping because it’s tough to go one-on-one with (Edwards),” Scheyer said.

Edwards never had the space to even attempt a shot during Duke’s 21-2 run. He finished with five points, his second lowest point total of the year.

“The bottom line, Jesse has to score for us if we want to be effective,” Boeheim said.

The Blue Devils got out front 22-19 following a 3-pointer from Jacob Grandison. SU did a good job of getting Duke late into the shot clock throughout Saturday night, even forcing a shot clock violation in the second half. But Tyrese Proctor dished it to Grandison, who nailed the deep shot from a few steps behind the right wing before the shot clock expired.

Duke hasn’t been a 3-point shooting team this year even though it possesses the talent to do so, Scheyer said. The Blue Devils were the third-worst team in the ACC from 3-point range but made a season-high 13 3-pointers against the Orange.

Duke was focused on taking more quality looks, which was reflected by it going 50% from beyond the arc in the first half, Scheyer said. The Blue Devils got the ball to Mark Mitchell or Lively inside, forcing the Orange’s zone to collapse inside and leave more space near the 3-point line. Mitchell and Lively made the right reads being “poised.”

“It looks easier than it actually is when you catch the ball in the middle of the zone,” Scheyer said. “I thought Mark did a really nice job in there, just had great poise making the right plays.”

The Hokies had exposed this issue with Syracuse at the end of January, sending passes into the low post before finding an open shooter at the corners or wings. Lively did the same thing with four minutes left in the first half, getting the ball at the left block before heaving it to Dariq Whitehead in the right corner.

A minute earlier, Lively got an offensive rebound after Grandison missed from deep. Lively kicked it out to Jeremy Roach, who had enough time to set his feet before nailing the 3.

“They started getting good shots and we didn’t cover as well as we should have,” Girard said.

The only points for SU during the Blue Devils first-half run came from Mintz, who scored after a turnover from Roach. It came from a pull-up jumper, but most of Mintz’s points came following steals at the top of SU’s zone.

“Judah made some really good individual plays, but we never got anything going as a group with our interior players,” Boeheim said.

Before Taylor was substituted into the game, Bell tried to take control of the offense but missed on his first shot out of a Syracuse timeout. He got the ball at the left wing a minute later, and stared at the defender in front of him while he decided what to do next.

Instead of driving or passing to someone else, Bell rose up for the shot. Airball.

“We never did score the whole game,” Boeheim said.

Published on February 18, 2023 at 10:58 pm

Contact Anish: asvasude@syr.edu | @anish_vasu