ACC Basketball: Duke’s winning streak snapped by Orange
By Stuart Gill
Duke saw their winning streak come to an end in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night as they lost to Syracuse in an ACC basketball showdown.
With less than five seconds left and the score knotted at 75, Syracuse collected a Luke Kennard missed jumper and got the ball to John Gillon. The Syracuse point guard tore down the court and running into a trio of defenders at the top of the key, just got off a prayer that would bank in at the buzzer, giving the Orange a huge upset win in the most-attended college basketball game yet this year.
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The loss snaps a seven-game win streak for Duke, who would have had a chance at coming within half a game of the top spot in the ACC with a victory and a UNC loss to Louisville. It also marks the second straight game in which Grayson Allen has struggled to score as much as we have become accustomed to seeing. The junior went 1-of-8 from beyond the arc and hit just two of his 11 total shots on the night, making it undoubtedly one of his worst performances yet.
With all of their players healthy, and good production coming from Kennard (he finished with 23, though he struggled to get things going), and Jayson Tatum (19 points), the Blue Devils have to be asking themselves why they aren’t running away with wins against teams in the lower half of the ACC standings, such as Syracuse, Wake Forest and Clemson. There is no question that they have more scoring potential on their roster, but their point differential against those teams in February is just +4.
Duke now sits in a three-way tie for third place in the conference at 10-5 along with Florida State and Notre Dame, though they are only two games ahead of the ninth-place Virginia. They will need to win against Miami and Florida State in the coming week in order to avoid a potential drop in the standings before capping off the regular season at Chapel Hill.
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Meanwhile, this win was huge for the Orange, who had lost their last three matchups by an average of just five points. They were led by Gillon, who scored 26 on 9-of-14 shooting, including the game winner. They are now 9-7 in the ACC, just a game and a half behind the third place teams. They will garner lots of attention by taking down a top 10 team, but Syracuse needs to win their last two games of the season, against Louisville and Georgia Tech, if they want to secure an NCAA Tournament bid.