Mark Williams scored a career-high 28 points on 11-of-14 shooting and Paolo Banchero and A.J. Griffin lit it up from beyond the arc as No. 7 Duke dominated host Syracuse 97-72 on Saturday evening.
In the final regular-season matchup between Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim — the two winningest coaches in Division I history — the Blue Devils stormed out of the gates and never looked back. Krzyzewski, who is retiring at season’s end, improved to 12-5 all-time against Boeheim.
Banchero made 4-of-7 3-pointers en route to 21 points and also dished out nine assists, while Griffin shot 6 of 10 from long distance and scored 20 points. Williams grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked three shots for the first-place Blue Devils (25-4, 15-3 ACC), who lead Notre Dame by one game in the ACC standings with two games remaining.
The Orange (15-14, 9-9) were led by 23 points from Buddy Boeheim and 18 from Joe Girard III. Freshman Benny Williams chipped in a career-best 14 points off the Syracuse bench.
Griffin made a 3-pointer on the game’s opening possession, and the rout was on. Banchero had a dunk and Williams dunked twice to push the lead to 9-0, and then two free throws by Banchero and a three-point play by Williams made it 14-0 just 4:18 into the contest.
Duke made seven of its first eight 3-pointers with the final one by Jeremy Roach creating a 34-13 advantage. Banchero knocked down his fourth triple of the game to expand the cushion to 48-18 with 5:05 to play until halftime.
The Orange closed the half with a 16-3 run, highlighted by Buddy Boeheim’s 10 points, to get within 51-34 at the break.
The Blue Devils still led by 17 early in the second half when a quick 7-2 burst — punctuated by Griffin’s 3-pointer — created a 22-point margin. Syracuse got no closer than 16 points down the stretch en route to its second straight loss following a stretch of six wins in seven games.
–Field Level Media