Offensive woes reach new low for Syracuse in blowout loss against Duke
Offensive woes reach new low for Syracuse
A 23-point first half dooms the Orange as Blue Devils roll out of the Dome with an easy 83-54 win.
The Orange played No. 2 ranked Duke and likely No. 1 overall pick in this year’s NBA draft, Cooper Flagg. While Flagg did not put on the show 23,000 fans came to see, the defense of Duke had the Orange in a bind. Syracuse scored only 23 points in the first half, leading to a final score of 83-54.
Flagg only scored 11 points on the night, but head coach Jon Scheyer felt as though he commanded the offense.
“I want him to take more, but he’s great with it, because he loves the fact he won,” Scheyer said about Flagg only taking seven shots.
“He loved the fact other guys would get their shots, so he’s great with it.”
The Orange trailed by 14 going into halftime. The team played well in the first half, holding Duke to four points for the first five minutes of the contest. They even matched those first few buckets. JJ Starling started off strong, putting up Syracuse’s first seven points.
With six minutes to go and the score 25-16 Kon Knueppel made two free throws and it would be the last time Syracuse saw a single-digit deficit.
Naheem McLeod checked-in and put up four quick points of his own. But Duke went on a run from behind the arc when Mcleod checked in and the Orange had no response. Bringing Mcleod into the game created mismatch problems for the Orange who were forced into a zone defense. Bad closeouts left the Blue Devils open for five straight three’s.
“I thought our zone was really good against Cal… They hadn’t shot it as well up until that point,” Autry said. “I thought what our defense worked on could try to get a stop here or two and kind of get back and they had caught a rhythm. ”
The barrage of three pointers pushed the lead to nine, 23-14. By the half the Orange were down 37-23 with no real answer for Duke’s defensive scheme. Duke is a long team and its lineups average about 6’7″ which makes it difficult for opponents to find open looks.
“Our guys came out for the first fourteen minutes and we competed,” Autry said.
“They almost kind of zone up, so you gotta try to move gaps and even when you move gaps, they’re so long back there, they do a good job of making you work,” Autry said.
This also stymied Syracuse’s ability to get to the rim and draw fouls. The Orange shot four free throws the whole night as a team and two of them came from McLeod late in the second half.
“I thought we settled for some, and then when we did get in there, we didn’t finish. Again, some of that had to do with, you know, their defense.”
Jyare Davis found a way to contribute 12 points of his own, while Starling finished with 12 after scoring the first seven.
Wednesday’s game also mark the first time in a while that Eddie Lampkin Jr. did not grab double figure rebounds, mainly due to McLeod getting a good portion of the minutes. McLeod in seven games coming into the game played a total of 25 minutes. By the end of night Mcleod played 22. While Lampkin was happy for him, McLeod knows that two rebounds at 7’4 won’t cut it, even if he scores 10 points.
“Only two rebounds at my size in what; 22 minutes? It’s not good enough. So at the end of the day, I got to work on being more physical and just being out there more,” McLeod said.
Only time will tell what the rotation will look like going forward. Wednesday marked the first time in five games Lampkin played under 30 minutes and the first time in nine games under 20, dating back to the Florida State game.
The Orange will take on Boston College next game, at home on The CW. The game takes place Saturday Feb. 8th at 3:15pm. The Orange already beat BC once on Jan. 11th