Three takeaways from Syracuse’s 97-72 loss to Duke

I, for one, enjoyed the Section III boys basketball semifinals more than this today.

The Syracuse Orange still cannot buy a Quad 1 win this season as the Duke Blue Devils once again dominated the Orange, winning 97-72. The Blue Devils won the rebounding battle 38-25 and made 15 threes against the Syracuse zone.

Here’s our takeaways from another Orange loss:

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*insert Spiderman pointing meme here*

For the Syracuse lacrosse fans out there, you’ll unfortunately know where I’m going with this. Both teams started out extremely slow today, and it’s where the games were pretty much decided. Syracuse kept up with Duke offensively in the second half, but the Blue Devils continued to expose the Orange defense. Duke answered every run Syracuse went on and ensured that its hot start to the game ended the contest before the Orange got going.

Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Hello there, General Kenobi

He’s not Obi-wan yet, but Benny Williams played one of his best games this season. He set season highs with 14 points and six rebounds. Williams got a good run in the second half and he and John Bol Ajak played the majority of the final 20 minutes on the wings. Williams showed good strength and started to show some of the reasons why fans were excited for the former five-star recruit.

Mark Konezny-USA TODAY Sports

Hope the prophecy is true

One of college basketball’s oldest sayings is “It’s hard to be a team three times in a season.” If Syracuse wants to even sniff the NCAA Tournament bubble, it seems in all likelihood that Duke will have to beat the Orange three times this year. The Orange are most likely playing in the 8-9 matchup of the ACC Tournament, which means they’ll play the one-seed if they advance to the quarterfinals. That in all likelihood is Duke, so we may not be done with Boeheim vs Krzyzewski yet.