Sweet 16! 3 takeaways from Duke basketball’s win at Syracuse to keep win streak alive
Thanks to solid scoring from Tyrese Proctor and Kon Knueppel, No. 2 Duke didn’t need a superior game from freshman star Cooper Flagg to keep its winning streak going Wednesday night.
Proctor scored 16 points while Knueppel added 12 as the Blue Devils hammered Syracuse, 83-54, at the JMA Wireless Dome, extending the nation’s longest active winning streak to 16.
It’s Duke’s longest single-season winning streak since the 2005-06 team won its first 17 games of the season.
Averaging 20 points per game, and having scored 20 points or more in 11 games this season, Flagg attempted just seven shots to score 11 points for the Blue Devils (20-2, 12-0 ACC). It ties for the fewest shots he’s attempted in a game this season.
But it mattered little for Duke’s fortunes as the Blue Devils hit 56.6% of their shots, including 69.2% in the second half.
Proctor, Duke’s junior guard, made 5 of 12 shots. Knueppel, a 6-6 freshman, got his dozen points on just six shot attempts. Graduate student forward Sion James and freshman Isaiah Evans tallied 10 points each for the Blue Devils.
Syracuse (10-13, 4-8 ACC) shot 38.3%, making just 6 of 23 3-pointers.
Here are three takeaways from Duke’s latest win:
Proctor shooting touch back?
Having been an inconsistent scorer over the past month, Proctor finally put back-to-back strong games together from an offensive standpoint.
The 6-5 junior, after scoring 17 points in Duke’s 87-70 win over North Carolina on Saturday, made four 3-pointers against Syracuse to boost his points output again. This came after, beginning with Duke’s win over Notre Dame on Jan. 11, Proctor failed to reach double figures in scoring in four of five games. The only exception was a 20-point outburst when Duke won 88-63 on Jan. 18.
But, after that, Proctor scored six and four points over Duke’s next two games, wins over Wake Forest and N.C. State.
Proctor entered Wednesday night averaging 10.7 points per game.
Dome-coming for Maliq Brown
Duke junior forward Maliq Brown played the previous two seasons for Syracuse, appearing in 60 games with 25 starts, before transferring to Duke last spring. The Syracuse fans who previously cheered him welcomed him back with rousing boos when he entered the game and every time he touched the ball.
In his second game back after missing four consecutive games with a sprained knee, Brown was Duke’s first player off the bench and was active on defense, as usual. He collected three steals in the first half alone.
With 15:45 to play in the game, Brown was on the receiving end of a hard foul from former Wake Forest Heritage High School player Lucas Taylor, a Georgia State transfer who was not at Syracuse with Brown either of the past two seasons. As Brown attempted a layup in transition, Taylor hit his arms hard enough to knock Brown to the court.
After video review, an intentional foul was called, giving Brown two free throws and Duke possession.
That naturally brought more boos from the Syracuse crowd.
Brown finished the night with six points, a team-best eight rebounds and three steals in the Duke win.
Missing Gillis
With 6-6 graduate student forward Mason Gillis not on the trip because of illness, Duke’s bench rotation changed. Gillis averages 14.4 minutes per game and is usually among the second or third reserves to enter the game.
Instead, the 6-6 freshman Evans got more playing time. While Brown was the first player off Duke’s bench to enter the game, Evans was next. Having played eight or fewer minutes in five of Duke’s previous seven games, Evans played seven minutes in the first half alone, helping the Blue Devils take a 37-23 lead at intermission.
For the game, Evans played 20 minutes. He made 3 of 6 shots, including 2 of 4 on 3-pointers.
This story was originally published February 5, 2025 at 9:04 PM.