Duke closes on run to survive against Syracuse

NEW YORK – Survive-and-advance mode came a little earlier than anticipated for Duke.

The Blue Devils scored the last 10 points in an 88-79 win over Syracuse in an ACC tournament quarterfinal game on Thursday at Barclays Center.

“I thought we started the game well then fell in love with the 3-point shot,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “(Our team) thought it was going to be easier, and they got momentum. We started fouling, and they saw the ball go in a lot, and then it was a helluva game.”

It was a close game – the “helluva” might not be a shared feeling, though.

Duke (27-5) trailed in the final four minutes against a team it beat by a combined 45 points in two regular-season meetings. Syracuse (16-17) got a lot of shots it wanted while going scoreless for the final 3½ minutes – the Orange just missed shots they’d made throughout the game.

Duke will play Miami on Friday night in a semifinal game. The Hurricanes are the only team in the ACC Duke hasn’t beaten at least once this season – having won 76-74 at Cameron Indoor Stadium in early January.

Among the shocking parts to this game was a post-game admission from Mark Williams that, when Syracuse was leading at 79-78 with 3:33 left, he was thinking about the loss to UNC last weekend.

The surprise isn’t that he was thinking about that game, necessarily; rather, it’s the acknowledgement that he was.

“Obviously versus North Carolina, we got that feeling of defeat knowing there's not a second chance to play in Cameron again,” Williams said. “So I think for me personally that's what was going through my mind. We lose that game, we're done, like we're not playing in the ACC tournament again.

“So honestly, that was probably the biggest thing, just surviving and advancing.”

For about the first eight minutes, this looked like the lopsided matchup that you would’ve expected given Duke’s two blowout wins in the regular season and Syracuse being without its first-team All-ACC player. Duke led 24-13 on a 3-pointer by Jeremy Roach – he scored a season-high 19 points – a little more than eight minutes into the game.

And then Joe Girard III scored 10 straight points, electrifying half of what felt like an evenly split crowd. The margin never got to double digits again.

To Krzyzewski’s point about Duke falling in love with long-range shots: In 32 games, Duke has only taken more than 30 3s in a game three times – all of those have been the games against Syracuse.

In the 10-0 run to end the game, the only 3-pointer that was taken came off of a drive by Wendell Moore Jr. and a kick to Roach, who calmly stroked a 3 from the wing that helped seal the result.

“Proud of my guys for especially executing down the stretch. Wendell really led us,” Krzyzewski said. “I thought it was Mark's best half in the second half this year. The guy who really turned it around for us was Jeremy. Jeremy had a sensational game.”

For the second straight game, Duke’s defense was – to put it kindly – lacking. Girard’s spree came amid a string of Syracuse scoring on 9 of 10 possessions, a combined 22 points.

“We're not playing very good defense right now,” Krzyzewski said. “We did not against North Carolina, and we did not in this game. We're missing a lot of assignments, and we fouled a lot of 3-point shooters.”

Duke’s offense was stymied by Syracuse mixing zones – no, really – and playing a triangle-and-2 at times, giving it almost a man-to-man look.

“Duke is a difficult team for us. They've completely dominated us two games,” Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim said. “We tried – which we haven't used in 24, 25 years – the triangle-and-2, which worked for a while.

“They're going to eventually get it. But I thought it gave us a little bit of an edge, and then we would switch back to the zone.”

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Here’s what to know ahead of Friday night’s game:

Time: 7 p.m.

TV: ESPN

Series; last meeting: Duke leads 22-9; Miami won 76-74 on Jan. 8.

Records: Miami 23-9; Duke 27-5.

Stat to watch: Duke’s turnovers.

The Blue Devils committed 17 of them in the regular-season loss to Miami, and that’s not surprising given A) Duke has struggled with ball security at times and B) Miami is one of the best teams in the country at creating steals.

Duke hasn’t had a turnover rate above 20% since losing to Virginia on Feb. 7. But the Blue Devils turned the ball over on 24.1% of their possessions against Miami, a season-high rate.

Miami records a steal on 13% of its possessions, which is 11th in the country.

Matchup to watch: Kameron McGusty and Isaiah Wong v. Trevor Keels and Wendell Moore Jr.

Miami’s best two offensive players are crafty, skilled wings, and it’ll be up to Keels and Moore to prevent them from taking over the game offensively.

For a Duke team struggling defensively in its last two games, that’s an intriguing task.

Hurricane to watch: Charlie Moore, guard.

Moore had 18 points and seven steals when these teams met in the regular season, during a stretch when he looked like a first-team All-ACC candidate.

His play trailed off, but the sixth-year point guard has been better recently.

Moore had 15 points and seven assists – including the game-winning assist on a buzzer-beater – against Boston College on Thursday. He’s averaged seven assists per game in Miami’s last four games, and the Hurricanes have won three straight.

Blue Devil to watch: AJ Griffin, wing.

Krzyzewski said after Duke’s win against Syracuse that Griffin is dealing with a bout of food poisoning – hence his four-point performance against the Orange.

So we’ve got a clear reason for Griffin having the second straight rough offensive game.

Griffin only played 22 minutes against the Orange – it’ll be interesting to see if he’s able to get back to himself this weekend.

KenPom prediction: Duke wins 81-72.

Devils Illustrated prognosis: It’s hard to know what to expect from this Duke team right now.

My thought was Duke would play inspired against Syracuse, having had a few days to put the bitterness of last weekend behind it.

By the end of Thursday’s game, it felt like the Blue Devils had lost.

Did Duke peak with the three road wins before the UNC debacle? Did that game throw this team’s chemistry into an unsolvable spiral?

We’ll see.