Duke blows out Syracuse with explosive second half
DURHAM – It wasn’t too long ago that second half offense was a concern for Duke.
Monday night’s performance against Syracuse makes that a distant memory.
Duke crushed the Orange 101-64 at Cameron Indoor Stadium, scoring 61 points in the second half and winning its 11th straight game against Syracuse.
Cameron Boozer had a double-double in the first half and finished with 22 points and 12 rebounds — in only 25 minutes. He was 8-for-10 from the field.
Isaiah Evans scored 21 points on 8-for-13 shooting. Duke did plenty of other things well but it’s a safe bet the Blue Devils will roll offensively with that duo shooting a combined 16-for-23.
Duke scored 25 second-half points in a slog of a win against Boston College a couple of weeks ago. And then in the only ACC loss, the Blue Devils scored 27 points at UNC.
Duke surpassed both of those totals in about eight minutes of Monday night’s game.
The Blue Devils scored on 15 of their first 16 possessions after halftime. That turned what was trending toward a rout into a blowout.
Syracuse led for about three minutes of the first half but never by more than two. The Blue Devils had a 9-0 run that turned a two-point deficit into a 16-9 lead, and they stretched that to 23-12.
The Orange got things tight again with a couple of 3s by Nate Kingz and some strong interior buckets by William Kyle III.
Duke hit the accelerator by scoring the last 11 points of the first half. That all came in roughly two minutes. It started with a 3-pointer by Cayden Boozer — kicked out by his brother — and included a couple of buckets by Cameron, along with an Isaiah Evans flushed alley-oop on a fast break.
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