Winslow's Career High 23 Points Power Duke Past Syracuse, 73-54

By Julia Morris

Durham, N.C. -- Last year, Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim didn't hold back his emotions in the final seconds of the Orange’s game against Duke at Cameron Indoor Stadium.  Boeheim ran onto Coach K Court and tried to rip off his jacket before getting ejected.  This year though, it was No. 4 Duke Head Coach Mike Krzyzewski who let his feelings be known during the rematch of the two teams on his home court.

 

About five minutes into the second half, freshman Justise Winslow pulled up for a three right next to the Duke bench.  Winslow’s shot hit nothing but net, sending the Cameron Crazies into a frenzy.  As the fans cheered and Winslow turned to run back down court, Coach K ran next to him, wound up and gave him a huge high five.

Krzyzewski had good reason to be amped for Winslow.  The basket brought his point total to 18 for the night and helped Duke pull away from the Orange for good, increasing the Blue Devils’ lead to 13, 44-31.  From there, Winslow continued to roll - finishing with a career high 23 points.  And so did Duke. Backed by the freshman’s strong performance, the Blue Devils (26-3, 13-3 ACC) defeated the Orange (18-11, 9-7) by a final score of 73-54.

“I thought Okafor is difficult down low but Justise Winslow was the difference tonight,” Boeheim said. “He made a couple of big threes and got in the lane.”

Syracuse Keeps It Close at Start of First Half, but Duke Pulls Away in Final Minutes

While Duke pulled away in the second half, the game was close in the opening minutes. 

Syracuse even had a lead early on when Tyler Roberson hit a basket down low with 15:41 left in the half to put Syracuse up 8-6.  Roberson, who finished the game with sixteen points, was effective in the opening frame,  scoring six of the team’s first eight points.

“He started the game great,” Boeheim. “It helps when nobody is guarding you.”

While Roberson started off strong, other Syracuse players struggled to get going.  Trevor Cooney’s first three-point attempt of the night sailed left of the basket, completely missing the rim – and the air ball was only the start of his struggles. Cooney, who has been battling a bad back, finished the first half 1-of-8 from the field and 0-of-4 from three-point range. 

“It’s tough for me I would love to be one hundred percent,” Cooney said. “But it happens in the game of basketball you have to keep playing hard and that’s what I’m going to do.” 

Syracuse shot 29 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes.  Because of the Orange’s struggles, Duke started to take control about midway through the first. Syracuse's last lead was 13-12 with 11:16 left. Winslow put Duke ahead with a layup and after SU tied it, he hit his first three of the night with 8:06 left in the half to give Duke a 20-16 lead.  After sinking the shot, he quickly turned around, stopped and stared at the Crazies as they erupted.  The freshman then went on to score the next two baskets for the Blue Devils, both of them in the paint, to give Duke a 24-16 lead.

 

“It makes it a lot easier because he gets to the rim, he gets fouled and he’s hitting his jumper,” Duke senior Quinn Cook said. “When he does that we’re a really scary team.”

Overall, the Blue Devils outscored Syracuse 24-14 down low in the opening half.

Freshman standout Jahlil Okafor contributed to those points down low.  Although Winslow was the clear star of the first half for the Blue Devils, Okafor was a strong presence on the boards, grabbing five offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes.  He made a putback layup with 2:28 to go to give Duke a nine point lead.   The Blue Devils held on to that lead heading into the break, up 34-25.

Duke Extends Lead in Second Half

Duke never gave up its lead in the second half and led by as much as 21points in the final twenty minutes.  The Blue Devils continued to stifle the Orange’s offense, holding them to 32-percent shooting from the field and 16 percent from behind the arc in the second half.

“We played really good defense tonight,” Krzyzewski said.  “I am proud of my guys because they (Syracuse) are a tough team obviously.  Our defense was terrific tonight.”

Christmas made a basket over several Duke defenders to cut the Blue Devils’ lead to seven with 17:22 left but Winslow made his big three-pointer shortly after to push the Duke lead back to thirteen. 

Even when Syracuse had open looks, the Orange often could not finish.  Gbinije had a wide-open layup with 14:02 left but the ball rolled off the rim.  The junior finished the game with 12 points but shot only 5-of-20 from the field.

“Mike missed four layups,” Boeheim said. “You miss, threes that happens. You can’t miss layups.”

Christmas, who fouled out of the Orange’s last game against Notre Dame, ran into more foul trouble against the Blue Devils. He picked up his fourth foul with a little less than 14 minutes to go in the second half. He stayed in the game and fouled out with 9:42 left.

The Orange’s leading scorer also had trouble contributing on offense.  Just as he struggled to assert his presence against Okafor down low at the Carrier Dome, Christmas couldn’t get open looks on Coack K Court.  He finished the game with only six shots from the field. Christmas had eleven points and five rebounds total.

“We’re going to need Rak to win and we didn’t give him as many touches as we should have this game,” Gbinije said.

Syracuse as a whole did not play as well against the Blue Devils as it did when Duke was at the Carrier Dome earlier in the month.  While the Valentine’s Day matchup was close, Duke was in control for most of the game at Cameron Indoor.

 

With 6:22 left to play, Tyus Jones stole the ball from Kaleb Joseph and fed it to Quinn Cook, who laid it in to put Duke up 60-42.  The senior finished the night with 17 points for the Blue Devils.

“I’m just shooting my shots confidently,” Cook said.  “I know I’m going to get shots and good looks because my teammates are great passers so I’m just fortunate enough to hit one.”

And while Cook was effective, it was Winslow who continued to shine.  He scored one last layup with 1:16 left to put Duke up 70-52 in a game that had long since been decided.

“Against the zone, I was in the middle a lot but I wanted to keep moving so Syracuse would have to keep their eyes on me,” Winslow said.  “I was going from the high post to the corners, just trying to stay active…we just wanted to go out there and compete and that’s what we did as a team tonight.”

Up Next

Syracuse will face its third ranked opponent in a row on Monday night when the Orange takes on Virginia in their final home game of the season.  Tip off is set for 7 p.m.

Duke has now won nine games in a row.  The Blue Devils will look to continue their streak when they host Wake Forest on Wednesday, March 4.  Game time is 8 p.m.