Duke basketball’s fast start, trio of 20-point scorers leads to 97-72 win at Syracuse
No. 7 Duke delivered an early onslaught of offense that quieted Syracuse’s packed Carrier Dome and moved the Blue Devils closer to locking down the ACC tournament’s top seed.
The Blue Devils hit 11 of their first 12 shots, building a 30-point first-half lead en route to blasting Syracuse 97-72 in ACC basketball Saturday night before a crowd of 31,803.
Duke had a trio of 20-point scorers as perimeter shooting by freshmen Paolo Banchero and A.J. Griffin and sophomore center Mark Williams’ powerful play inside overwhelmed the Orange (15-14 overall, 9-9 ACC).
“I thought our our offense was amazing for those first 17 minutes of the first half,” Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said.
Winner of six games in row, first-place Duke (25-4 overall, 15-3 ACC) holds a one-game lead over Notre Dame (21-8, 14-4) in the league regular-season standings with two games to play. Since the Blue Devils beat the Irish 57-43 on Jan. 31 to claim a tiebreaker, Duke only needs to beat Pittsburgh on Tuesday night or North Carolina on March 5 to clinch its first first-place finish in the ACC regular season since 2010.
Williams proved too much to handle inside as he scored a career-high 28 points while grabbing 12 rebounds.
“Obviously we performed really well on the offensive end,” Williams said. “I think we were really locked in on the defensive end, too. We were moving the ball. We were getting really good shots and defensively we just communicated well, moving, just playing great defense. Duke defense.”
Banchero, who’s shooting had been off of late, had his best scoring game since scoring 21 points at Notre Dame on Jan. 31. The 6-10 forward scored 18 points in the first half, finishing with 21 points on 7 of 16 shooting. That included 4 of 7 on 3-pointers.
Over Duke’s previous seven games, Banchero had made just 5 of 17 3-pointers. He also finished with nine assists against Syracuse.
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“Just having fun, really,” Banchero said of his breakout. “I felt like the past few weeks, I had been putting some unnecessary pressure on myself. Just overthinking especially on offense. That overthinking and over-analyzing really affected my game. So it was just realizing when I play free and play fun, I always play better.”
Griffin scored 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting, including 6 of 10 on 3-pointers.
Buddy Boeheim provided the bulk of the Orange offense with 23 points as Joe Girard added 18. Syracuse shot 49.2% overall but hit only 5 of 19 3-pointers.
Off the strength of that scorching start, the Blue Devils shot 60% in the first half to take a 51-34 lead to intermission. The Blue Devils led 48-18 with 5:05 left in the half before Syracuse scored the half’s final 11 points to slice into its deficit.
The Orange were as close as 15 early in the second half before Duke, with Williams scoring back-to-back baskets inside, pushed its lead back up to 23 points.
Duke finished with 53.8% shooting from the field as the Blue Devils hit 15 of 32 3-point attempts against the Orange’s 2-3 zone defense. The 15 made 3-pointers tied Duke’s season high.
This story was originally published February 26, 2022 at 8:13 PM.