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Teams: Syracuse Orange (15-4, 4-2) vs. Duke Blue Devils (9-9, 1-5)
Date & Time: Sunday, January 27 at 1 p.m. ET
Location: Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, N.C.
TV/Streaming: RSN
Radio: Cuse.com/ ESPN Syracuse 97.7 FM
Duke blog: Duke Basketball Report
Series: Duke leads 5-2
Streak: 1, Syracuse
Last Meeting: Syracuse 68 Duke 65
Tiana Mangakahia had 19 points, 11 assists, four steals and was 5-for-6 from three-point range in last year’s matchup against the Blue Devils. Miranda Drummond added 12 points, and Isis Young scored 16 points in 15 minutes off the bench for the Orange.
This game was won from three-point range. SU scored 45 of its 68 points from beyond-the-arc. The team shot nearly 47 percent, finishing 15-of-32 from three. Duke shot 6-of-19 from three which is just a hair under 32 percent.
Head Coaches: SU: Quentin Hillsman (13th season, 278-140) Duke: Joanne P. McCallie (12th season, Duke 311-89)
Coach Bio: McCallie is a three-time ACC Coach of the Year (2010, 2012, 2013). She led the Blue Devils to four consecutive ACC regular season titles (2010-2013) and three conference titles in 2010, 2011, 2013. She’s the 15th-fastest coach to 600 wins overall, as it only took her just 821 games to do so.
She has signed 15 McDonald’s All-Americans in her time at Duke and has five top-2 recruiting classes, including three No. 1 recruiting classes.
Last year: Duke went 24-9 overall, earning a 5-seed in the NCAA Tournament and making the Sweet 16, where they lost to UConn 72-59. The Blue Devils went 11-5 in conference play, which was highlighted by an upset win over Florida State and a close loss to Louisville, but they bowed out to NC State in the first game of the ACC Tournament. Duke also beat ranked squads in Ohio State and Oregon State in the regular season, and scored a second round upset over 4-seed Georgia in the NCAAs.
Last game: Duke hosted Wake Forest on Thursday and collected a 66-52 win over the Deacons. Leaonna Odom led the way for the Blue Devils with 20 points on 9-of-10 shooting, while Haley Gorecki (14 points) Jayda Adams (12) and Miela Goodchild (11) also scored in double digits. Duke led by four after the first quarter, kept that lead in the second and then padded the advantage throughout the second half. They shot 54.2 percent as a team too, which obviously helped quite a bit.
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“Fear Me, I’ve Killed Hundreds of Timelords”: Gorecki’s been the team’s leading scorer in conference play, averaging 16.8 per. She’s also the team’s top rebounder. Syracuse’s losses usually come from their own poor shot selection, however. So Gorecki finding success doesn’t necessarily mean a Duke win. She’s also hitting just 35.2 percent of her shots in league play, so if she scores a lot, it’ll likely come from volume versus efficiency.
If Syracuse Wins: They will bounce back from their first two-game losing streak of the season, as they dropped the previous games to Georgia Tech and Miami respectively. A win will move SU a game closer in the team-series, which Duke currently leads five-to-two.
If Syracuse Loses: It will be the team’s first three-game losing streak of the season and the Orange will fall 4-3 in the ACC, after starting 4-0. A loss will make SU’s road record 3-4 on the season, and means four of the team’s five loses would have come on the road.