Syracuse basketball performed admirably, but got beat by a better Duke squad

Syracuse basketball battled tough with Duke on Saturday evening before a boisterous home crowd, but the Orange rally came up just short.

Syracuse basketball put up nearly 90 points on Saturday night on the Hill against a top-10 Duke bunch that is among the premier units in the country as it pertains to defensive efficiency.

So, kudos to the Orange offense for scoring in droves – despite not connecting on a high percentage from the field. Unfortunately, the spotty ‘Cuse 2-3 zone allowed almost 100 points to the No. 9 Blue Devils, and that spelled doom for Syracuse.

Look, I get that all of us in Orange Nation wanted to collect a signature success inside the Carrier Dome, with more than 31,000 fanatics rocking the joint. And credit the ‘Cuse for hanging around, as our boys trimmed a double-digit deficit after intermission to five points in the contest’s waning minutes.

Duke is simply better, and there’s no shame in saying that. The Blue Devils (18-3, 8-2) shredded the Syracuse zone in terms of paint production. Duke hit at a stellar rate from the charity stripe. And the Blue Devils made vital plays down the stretch to spoil a commendable Orange comeback.

Overall, the ‘Cuse (13-9, 6-5) did perform fairly admirably, in my humble opinion. Syracuse lost the rebounding war, but not by a huge amount. The Orange forced a ton of careless miscues versus Duke, although in some instances the ‘Cuse had difficulty translating those mistakes into points.

Syracuse went for 38.6 percent from the field as a whole, and a paltry 23.1 percent from beyond the arc. That isn’t going to result in a triumph over the Blue Devils, a team that is merely too talented on both ends of the floor.

Yet even with those poor shooting percentages, the Orange managed to manufacture 88 points, buoyed by 28 made attempts from the free-throw line. That’s pretty good.

The problem is that the ‘Cuse likely wouldn’t have the ability to out-score Duke, and the Blue Devils generated an astounding 57 points in the second stanza, a number for which Syracuse couldn’t ultimately keep up. Heck, the Orange got a whopping 52 points of its own in the second half and still fell by nine points.

The ‘Cuse, presently situated in fifth place in the Atlantic Coast Conference standings, now has a week off to regroup and will seek to snap its two-affair setback streak when it hosts Wake Forest on Saturday, February 8.

Then, Syracuse arrives at a critical three-game docket where it has N.C. State in Central New York and subsequently embarks on road tilts with league heavyweights Florida State and Louisville.

This gauntlet of encounters will, by my estimation, determine whether the Orange has any realistic chance at earning an at-large invite to the 2020 March Madness.