Duke Gets Win at Syracuse

Duke won its third straight ACC game, traveling to Syracuse on Saturday and coming back with the victory, 97-88.

The Blue Devils got back Wendell Moore Jr., who had been out since breaking a bone in his hand on Jan. 4, but they were missing two members of the coaching staff. Assistant Jon Scheyer had an emergency appendectomy in Syracuse on Saturday morning. Director of basketball operations Nolan Smith was in Durham to tend to his ailing daughter. Both patients got clean bills of health, but Duke was short-handed on the bench for the game.

Syracuse jumped out to an early lead, as Duke struggled to get the ball inside against Syracuse’s zone defense. The Blue Devils eventually solved the puzzle, however, and took their first lead of the game in the final minute of the half and went to the break up 40-36.

Duke opened the second half with a run and quickly pushed the lead to double digits. Syracuse relied on outside shooting and points off Duke’s 19 turnovers to cut into the margin but never seriously challenged the Blue Devils’ lead in the second half.

Duke center Vernon Carey scored 26 points for the second straight game and added a career-high 17 rebounds. Cassius Stanly had 15 points, most of them late in the game as Duke relied on him to drive the ball to the hoop against Syracuse’s press.

Point guard Tre Jones had 17 points and was 10-of-10 from the free throw line. He had six assists.

Moore had five points and three assists in his return to the floor.

Javin DeLaurier and Alex O’Connell, who have both seen their playing time shrink in recent games, had big nights. DeLaurier had eight points on 4-of-4 shooting, to go with four rebounds, while O’Connell had 11 points.

This was the first of three straight road games for Duke, who go to Boston College on Tuesday, then have their showdown with rival UNC on Saturday in Chapel Hill.

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