Five Takeaways: Duke 97 Syracuse 72

What to make of the Orange's blowout loss to the Blue Devils.

Syracuse fell 97-72 to #7 Duke inside the Carrier Dome Saturday night in front of the largest on campus crowd in college basketball this season. Here are five takeaways from the Orange's loss. 

1. Benny Williams

Yes Buddy had a strong game scoring the ball, but the main positive from this game was Benny Williams' performance. He had a career high in points (14), rebounds (6) and minutes (30). Benny looked confident and played under control. He flashes his athleticism with a couple of buckets around the rim, including a nifty reverse layup, but also hit a mid-range jumper and was 4-5 from the free throw line. The jumper and results from the charity stripe show tangible results from the hard work he is putting in behind the scenes on his shot. An extremely encouraging performance from Benny. 

2. Dominated in the Middle

If you look strictly at points in the paint, Duke just a 40-36 advantage. However, the dominance in the middle was far more than that. Mark Williams had 28 points and 12 rebounds, with eight of his rebounds coming on the offensive end, and three blocks. Duke had 17 offensive rebounds and had multiple possessions with two or more. Syracuse was significantly overmatched inside. Not having Jesse Edwards was killer. Syracuse is overmatched against Duke anyway, but no Jesse made it that much worse. 

3. Perimeter Defense

Syracuse actually had a decent offensive game. The Orange scored 72 points and shot 49.2% from the floor.  Defensively, it was a mess all around. Including from the perimeter. Syracuse did not get out on shooters and left Duke's best outside shooters open all game long. AJ Griffin was 6-10 from three after torching the Orange in the first meeting. Paolo Banchero was 4-7 from the outside. While Banchero was not having a great year percentage wise from three point range, talented players given those kind of looks will usually shoot a good percentage. He did against Syracuse. In total, Duke was 15-32 (46.9%) from beyond the arc. 

4. Rebounding

Duke outrebounded Syracuse 38-25 including 17-10 on the offensive boards. This despite the fact that Duke seemed to not miss during the first 15 minutes of the game. It is the third straight game the Orange was dominated on the glass. It does not get any easier as Syracuse faces North Carolina on Monday with the ACC's leading rebounder in Armando Bacot. The Tar Heels also lead the conference in rebounding margin. 

5. A Preview of Monday Night?

A good outside shooting team with a dominant, physical center. That's what Syracuse just faces and that is what the Orange gets Monday night at North Carolina. Armando Bacot is the best rebounder in the ACC at over 12 per game and is seventh in the league in scoring at over 16 points per game. The Tar Heels are the best rebounding team in the ACC and shoot over 37% from three as a team. Syracuse is going to have to show significant improvement defensively if it is going to compete with UNC. The good news? Duke is one of the best defensive teams in the conference as the number one team in field goal percentage and three point percentage defense. North Carolina is not, ranking 10th and ninth in the ACC in those categories. 

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