Syracuse Falls to Duke 86-66 behind the Blue Devils’ Second Half Explosion

In the first half of this matchup between Syracuse and Duke, it was a back-and-forth affair. A big reason why? Well, the Blue Devils on this end went 0 for 9 from beyond the arc. Duke still entered the halftime break with a two-point lead. Both teams went to the locker room, talked some things out, but then in the second half, the Blue Devils came out and went 8 for 8 from three-point land on this end. En route to an 86 to 66 victory over the Orange. A big reason why Duke caught fire? Well, Syracuse simply turned the ball over too much.

“I thought they did a good job of a, again, once they out and running, and making threes in the halfcourt, I thought they had some patience, they got the ball inside. I think they scored inside. So now you got threes and twos, so they scoring them both. Again, I think everything that happened today, especially in the second half, was a lot on us. We just didn’t, again, they’re a good defensive team, but I thought a lot of our turnovers were just us not making the right play, not making the right read or just not getting there.”

“The turnovers allowed them to get out and get easy transition threes. McCain hit a couple, Roach hit a couple obviously, which opened up for them. So just locking them, not turning the ball over and getting back on defense when we do turn the ball over.”

So 17 turnovers, not very good for the Orange, but you know what is good? Forward, Malik Brown had a career-high, 26 points off the bench in the 20-point loss. Syracuse has a bit of a break now and next takes on Boston College in the Dome on January 10th. Tip-off is at 9:00 PM. Reporting from Cameron Indoor Stadium, Ben Specter, Citrus TV.