Syracuse, N.Y. — The Syracuse basketball team takes on the No. 2 Duke Blue Devils at 7 p.m., Wednesday in the JMA Wireless Dome.
The game will air on ESPN2.
See in-game team and individual stats here.
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Final: Duke 83, Syracuse 54
In its biggest deficit of the year, Syracuse basketball (10-13, 4-8 ACC) dropped a 29-point contest to No. 2 Duke (20-2, 12-0 ACC), 83-54.
The Orange have lost four of their last five games, two of them happening inside the JMA Wireless Dome.
JJ Starling and Jyare Davis tied for a team-high 12 points, with Eddie Lampkin leading the Orange with seven points. Naheem McLeod reached a season-high 10 points for Syracuse as the only other player to reach double figures.
Outside Starling and Davis, Syracuse’s starting five scored a combined seven points.
Duke’s freshmen duo Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel finished the game with a combined 23 points, but Tyres Proctor led the game with 16 points for the Blue Devils.
Former Orange Maliq Brown played 22 minutes in his homecoming game, scoring six points and collecting eight boards and blocking one shot.
Duke never let Syracuse within arms reach, scoring nine triples and making eight dunks against the Orange defense. Syracuse tried its 2-3 zone defense that worked against California, but it didn’t have the same effect as it did against the Golden Bears.
The Blue Devils’ 12-2 run in the first half separated the Orange from staying with reach, after Duke scored three-straight three-pointers. The run created a double-digit lead the Blue Devils expanded on the rest of the game.
Syracuse turned the ball over 14 times, allowing the Blue Devils to pick up 23 points off the fast break.
Syracuse’s loss to the Blue Devils is the second 20-point loss in ACC play and fourth this year.
Second half
3:50 remaining: Duke 77, Syracuse 46
Naheem McLeod reaches a season-high eight points, sinking a layup deep in the paint.
The Orange are shooting 38% from the field, but haven’t made a free throw in the game. Syracuse has had just one chance from the charity stripe.
The Blue Devils extend their lead to 25 points after Petar Majstorovic picks up a personal foul. Proctor makes both free throws.
Duke puts together a 10-0 run in two minutes, including three dunks by Kaman Maluach, Darren Harris and Isaiah Evans.
Syracuse calls a timeout. The Orange have one remaining.
7:54 remaining: Duke 65, Syracuse 43
Proctor takes over as the Blue Devils’ leading scorer with 14 points.
Duke has made nine triples against the Orange and have forced 11 turnovers.
Bell makes his second triple of the game, Syracuse’s fifth of the contest, before Kyle Cuffe Jr. is called for his first personal foul of the game.
9:57 remaining: Duke 59, Syracuse 38
Duke extends its lead to 20 points, picking up an and-one against Chris Bell. Bell has two personal fouls with the Orange.
Syracuse hasn’t scored in over two minutes, while Duke extends its lead out to 22 points.
Davis breaks into double figures for the Orange, reaching 12 points to tie Knueppel for the game-high.
Starling scores his first triple of the game, as well as points in the first half, to bring Syracuse out of a 20-point deficit. He’s the second player for Syracuse to reach double figures.
Flagg slams home a dunk and blocks Syracuse’s next possession to bring the Blue Devils back to a 21-point lead.
Bell picks up his third foul in transition.
14:48 remaining: Duke 48, Syracuse 29
Brown makes one of two free throws out of the timeout. He’s fouled again, this time by Davis, but misses the free throw as well.
Jaquan Carlos scores on a driving layup, his first points of the game.
Brown gets the second chance free throw and a dunk for the Blue Devils. Syracuse calls a timeout.
15:45 remaining: Duke 44, Syracuse 27
JJ Starling picks up his second foul of the game on Duke’s first possession of the second half.
Kon Knueppel sinks a triple to be the first player of the game into double figures. Jyare Davis responds with a jump shot for his sixth point of the game.
Eddie Lampkin picks up his third foul of the game but stays on the court. He turns the ball over, allowing Tyres Proctor to score.
Knueppel is called for his third foul of the game, and he also stays on the court. Davis scores another jumper for the Orange, now leading Syracuse with eight points.
Cooper Flagg scores his first points of the second half driving into the paint. Lampkin tries to go one-on-one against Maliq Brown, but is unsuccessful. Brown is fouled by Lucas Taylor, whose call is upgraded to a Flagrant 1.
Halftime: Duke 37, Syracuse 23
Though Cooper Flagg has been No. 2 Duke’s darling of the season, Tyres Proctor and Kon Knueppel are tied for nine points apiece to led the Blue Devils to a 37-23 lead over Syracuse.
The Orange turned the ball over seven times and never saw the free throw line in the first half. JJ Starling leads Syracuse with seven points, with Eddie Lampkin grabbing a game-high five boards.
Syracuse flipped back-and-forth between man-to-man and its 2-3 zone defense in the first half, throwing multiple different looks at Flagg in the opening 20 minutes. The result led to the freshman scoring seven points, grabbing four boards and give up the lone Blue Devil turnover.
But a 12-2 Duke run put enough separation between the Orange and Blue Devils. Duke made three consecutive triples while holding Syracuse to a two minute drought in the process, creating a double-digit gap the Blue Devils relished in.
Outside of Starling, Syracuse shot 0-5 to start the game. Jyare Davis and Starling are the only starters with two made field goals in the first half.
The Orange also turned to Naheem McLeod deep in the paint, who scored four points in six minutes. Though he doesn’t recorded any rebounds or blocks, the big man helped stall a handful of Duke possessions.
Lampkin is the only Syracuse player with two personal fouls, while Kneuppel is the lone Duke player playing with two fouls as well.
First half
4:00 remaining: Duke 28, Syracuse 18
Davis scores his first points of the game with a jump shot out of the timeout. He’s the second Syracuse starter to score for the Orange.
The Orange force their first turnover on Duke, but Carlos misses the triple in transition. The Blue Devils then steal the ball from Syracuse and Davis picks up a foul heading back on defense.
Knueppel makes all three free throws. Duke has made five of its last seven field goal attempts.
It’s Duke 28, SU 18 at the U-4 timeout.
Kon Knueppel has 9 points for Duke. He’s a rugged guy. More physical than I’d seen on TV.— Mike Waters (@MikeWatersSYR) February 6, 2025
Davis makes a contested jump shot and picks up the and-one, but misses the three-point conversion.
Bell is called for his first personal foul of the game and Proctor misses the three-point attempt off the inbound.
Blue Devils’ Caleb Foster picks up his first personal foul of the game.
7:55 remaining: Duke 20, Syracuse 14
Bell makes Syracuse’s second three-pointer of the game after the timeout. Starling, with the help of McLeod, blocks a shot from Isaiah Evans, allowing McLeod to make an easy layup in the paint.
Duke uses its first timeout of the game.
Flagg misses a jump shot after the timeout, and forces Majstorovic to turn the ball over on the other end of the court.
The Orange have turned the ball over four times in the first half.
9:51 remaining: Duke 20, Syracuse 9
Syracuse enters a 2-3 zone defense out of the timeout, with Starling as the lone starter in the lineup. Chris Bell, Petar Majstorovic, Jaquan Carlos and Naseem McLeod subbing in for the other four.
McLeod ends a 6-0 Duke run with his first points of the game. He’s the first player for Syracuse other than Starling to score.
Proctor makes the Blue Devils’ third triple of the game, which turns into another 6-0 Duke run after Sion James drains another triple — the Blue Devils’ third consecutive triple in the 2-3 zone.
Adrian Autry uses his first timeout of the game.
11:49 remaining: Duke 11, Syracuse 7
Kon Knuppel makes both free throws out of the timeout. He scores a driving layup immediately after.
Brown steals the ball from the Orange, but Eddie Lampkin blocks the shot from behind. The Orange steals the ball and Starling sinks a triple in transition.
Flagg responds with a quick three-pointer of his own.
The Orange are held scoreless for 2:12 as Starling misses a layup. Starling has all seven points for Syracuse, with the remainder of the Orange shooting 0-5.
15:37 remaining: Syracuse 4, Duke 4
Duke wins the tip off and both teams make their first shots of the game. Syracuse opts to play man-to-man coverage with Jyare Davis covering Cooper Flagg.
JJ Starling is called for his first personal foul of the game, sending Tyrese Proctor to the free throw line. Proctor misses both shots.
Neither team could score for 2:38, until Khaman scores his first points of the game with an easy dunk.
Four minutes into the game, former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown enters the game and is booed by fans. Starling immediately drove toward Brown and made the layup to tie the game.
Lucas Taylor is called for a personal foul, awarding the Blue Devils two free throws.
Pregame
The Tobacco Road trio are slowly making their way to Upstate New York, starting off with No. 2 Duke (19-2, 11-0 ACC) visiting Syracuse basketball (10-12, 4-7 ACC) on Wednesday night.
The Orange closed out a two-game California trip, splitting the week with games against Stanford and California. Lucas Taylor had his best game of the season against the Golden Bears, scoring a team-high 19 points in the 9-point road win.
JJ Starling followed Taylor with 18 points, crossing over into the 1,000-point club against the Golden Bears at the start of the second half. He averages 17.9 points per game, leading the Orange and picking up seven 20-point appearances.
Meanwhile, No. 2 Duke hasn’t lost a game since falling to then-No. 1 Kansas on Nov. 28 on neutral court. The Blue Devils are a perfect 11-0 in conference play, winning the last 15 games.
The Blue Devils’ appearance inside the JMA Wireless Dome means former Syracuse forward Maliq Brown returns to the Salt City for the first time since transferring last season.
Brown missed five games with a sprained knee but made his return in Duke’s rivalry win over North Carolina on Saturday.
Duke’s offense is led by two true freshmen: Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel. The duo have a combined average of 33.5 points per game, helping lead the Blue Devils to the third-best scoring team in the conference. Duke also sits in the top three for made three-pointers (211) and rebounding (39.3 per game) while holding the best assist-to-turnover ratio in the ACC (1.66).
However, Mason Gillis won’t play against Syracuse, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Gillis has played every game this season, but didn’t make the trip due to an illness. He averages 4.8 points and 2.5 rebounds per game in just over 14 minutes of action.
Syracuse’s West Coast road trip saw the Orange play a zone defense, rather than man-to-man, against California. The 2-3 defense gave Syracuse some life defensively, but the Blue Devils are a stronger shooting team than the Golden Bears.
Whoever Orange coach Adrian Autry draws up to match Flagg will also be a key element to the game. How will the chosen Orange attempt to slow the growing freshman phenom?
More importantly, Syracuse’s rebounding will need to be in tip-top shape. Duke has a plus-9 rebounding margin, and the Orange are still without Donnie Freeman.
