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DURHAM, N.C. — This time, Buddy Boeheim was open. Wide-open. So open that when he slid to the corner on Syracuse’s first possession of the second half, with Jesse Edwards holding the ball and directing Buddy to the spot with his eyes, the three Duke defenders perched in the paint didn’t even move with him. They wouldn’t have been able to collapse on Buddy before he elevated for the shot.

After Buddy’s scoreless first half, defined by an 0-for-8 shooting line, this was the shooting window the Orange needed to ignite their best shooter amid a 14-point halftime deficit. It wasn’t a four-on-three scenario like opposing defenses presented SU all season — the ones that prompted head coach Jim Boeheim to lament about his offense’s inability to score when Buddy was doubled or face-guarded. It was a one-on-zero, with Buddy the one and Duke’s defenders the zero. But his shot still bounced off the rim.

“He got some looks,” head coach Boeheim said postgame. “He just couldn’t make them.”

In a season where defenses have adjusted to Buddy’s offensive burst from the end of last year, pinpointing how he scored in bunches and turning those scoring runs into interspersed baskets, Saturday’s 79-59 loss to the No. 6 Blue Devils (15-3, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) reflected a new low point for the Orange (9-10, 3-5 ACC). Buddy didn’t make his first shot until 9:40 remained in the second half. SU shot 5-of-29 from 3 and hit 35.3% of its shots overall as Buddy stumbled his way to seven points on 2-for-15 shooting, allowing Duke’s lead to become as large as 31.

“The first seven league games we haven’t had a game like this,” Boeheim said. “We’ve played pretty well, particularly offensively. We just couldn’t get the ball in the basket today. We’re not winning those games.”

If Tuesday’s victory over Clemson provided a glimpse of hope, a glimpse of the potential that a sinking season could be saved, the 20-point loss four days later made sure it remained an outlier. It took everything that’s gone wrong for the Orange this season — the lack of scoring behind Buddy, the poor 3-point defense, the turnovers, the foul trouble, the lack of depth to deal with the foul trouble and so much more — and mashed those faults together over a 40-minute span.

The Orange didn’t score on their first three possessions, turning the ball over twice — both on lost handles, one from Cole Swider and one from Edwards — and ended another possession empty when Buddy’s 3, heaved toward the basket in the shot clock’s final seconds, bounced short.

Wendell Moore Jr., who served as Buddy’s primary defender, said he “kinda knew” what shots Buddy tended to take, and Jeremy Roach added that knowing those tendencies allowed them to eliminate the Orange’s “floppy actions” — where they set up pairs of screens, one on each block, that allow Buddy to go either way. Moore said that he’d try to take one side away, forcing Buddy toward the other direction, and execute what he called a “lock-and-trail” to avoid getting hit by the screen. If Moore’s path did get altered by the screen, he’d switch with the post player defending the screener.

“We did a great job of that,” Roach said about defending the floppy action.”Just know that that’s coming.”

Duke, meanwhile, converted on its first five possessions to secure an early 11-2 lead and forced Boeheim to call an early timeout. AJ Griffin, the brother of former Syracuse forward Alan Griffin, drilled two 3s, including one when Moore positioned himself in the high post and had another Duke option on the left wing, in case the window to Griffin closed.

Fans and former players have advocated for reinstating the team, but 50 years later, Syracuse remains the only ACC school without a baseball team. Daily Orange File Photo

Duke’s lead swelled to 14 by the break, to 18 by the first media timeout and then to 29 when Boeheim signaled to a referee for a timeout with 7:59 remaining. Buddy finally scored his first basket when he dribbled around Moore, banking a shot off the glass. But Moore responded with a 3, like Duke found a way to do every time SU inched closer to a run, and Buddy missed on his next drive. And when Moore connected on another a few minutes later, Buddy — whom Moore hit the shot over — glanced toward the Duke forward as he strolled back down the court, his outstretched arm still raised in its shooting form as he bobbed his head up and down.

Syracuse’s defense was never going to limit Duke’s offense, at least not enough, and not for long enough, to win solely on that. In order to pull an upset against this top-10 team, once ranked No. 1 in late November and crawling to regain that spot, it’d require a point-by-point matching by SU’s offense until it scraped together a few more. That happened two years ago, when the Orange pulled out an overtime win. That’s what happened Nov. 30 against Indiana.

But with its leading scorer silenced, Syracuse couldn’t trim its deficit to anything reachable in the second half. In transition with five minutes left, Buddy pointed for Symir Torrence — who left the game late in the second half with a sprained ligament in his right knee but said postgame that he’ll be fine — to throw the ball to Jimmy Boeheim. Buddy curled around his older brother, took the handoff and lifted into his shooting form.

His shot air balled. Buddy wiped his hands on his shorts in frustration and walked toward the Syracuse bench as Joe Girard III checked in for him. Associate head coach Adrian Autry patted him on the back twice, assistant coach Gerry McNamara massaged Buddy’s neck, and he just sat there, Gatorade bottle in hand, shaking his head as Duke’s offense worked up the court and manufactured another 3 itself.

Published on January 22, 2022 at 2:16 pm

Contact Andrew: arcrane@syr.edu | @CraneAndrew