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Wendell Moore Jr. comments on Duke's blowout win over Syracuse

ns_headshot_2024-clearby:Nick Schultz01/22/22

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No. 6 Duke didn’t leave much room for doubt in its 79-59 win over Syracuse on Saturday. Wendell Moore Jr. led the charge for the Blue Devils and spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe after the game.

Moore had a huge day for Duke, putting up 15 points, six rebounds and eight assists. But he also got it done on the defensive end, holding Syracuse leading scorer Buddy Boeheim to seven points.

Moore said Duke talked about how much of a challenge it’d be to stop Boeheim, and he knew he had to give it his all to stop him.

“I knew it was going to be a tough assignment coming in,” Moore said. “We really mentioned it in scout, he’s one of the best scorers in the ACC, so I had a really tough challenge on my hands. I kind of took it personal and came out here and just gave it all I got.”

Syracuse broke out a zone defense against Duke, which is why it was a one-point game in the first half. But the Blue Devils adjusted easily to take a commanding lead into halftime and, eventually, lead by as many as 30 points.

Moore said stopping the zone wasn’t an individual effort. He and his teammates had to be unselfish with the basketball to get around the Orange defensive attack.

“It started with ball movement,” Moore said. “All our guys came out, AJ [Griffin] came out and hit big threes early to give us a lot of energy. … We were just ready to shoot. It was just a total team effort today.”

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The victory moves Duke to 15-3 overall and 5-2 in ACC play. The Blue devils now prepare to take on Clemson Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

Jon Scheyer assesses Duke’s first half against Syracuse

At one point, No. 6 Duke led Syracuse by one point. But the Blue Devils took a 36-22 lead into halftime — not leaving much for Jon Scheyer to be unhappy about.

The Duke associate head coach spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe heading into halftime to discuss his group’s performance on Saturday. He first talked about how Duke has done penetrating Syracuse’s zone defense, which helped create some separation.

“Just having poise,” Scheyer told Rowe. “They do a great job of making you stand up. We need to be stronger with the ball. AJ Griffin gave us a great lift at the beginning. Our defense has been really good.”