Beyond the arc: Duke men's basketball vs. Syracuse

John Gillon's prayer at the buzzer was answered with a deep 3-pointer off the backboard to lift Syracuse past Duke 78-75 at the Carrier Dome Wednesday. The Blue Devils' seven-game winning streak ended in dramatic fashion, as Duke and the Orange added another chapter to the string of instant classics the two teams have played in recent years.

Revisiting the three keys to the game: 

• Find the open 3: The Blue Devils were not always patient and disciplined against Syracuse's 2-3 zone, with junior Grayson Allen and sophomore Luke Kennard launching a few rushed shots early in possessions from several feet beyond the 3-point line. Duke wound up shooting just 10-of-33 from downtown—Allen was 1-of-8—though the Blue Devils did move the ball around on occasion for some big shots and finished with 16 assists on their 25 made field goals.
• Control the tempo from the start: Neither Duke nor the Orange play particularly fast, but Wednesday's game started at a breakneck pace with few stoppages in play in the opening minutes. The Blue Devils soon opened up a double-digit lead when the game slowed down and they could methodically pick apart Syracuse's defense, but the Orange got back into it in the second half behind several quick driving layups in transition from point guard John Gillon.
• Contain Andrew White III on the perimeter: Duke clearly made it a point of emphasis to take White III out of the game, and its defense succeeded. Syracuse's leading scorer attempted just four shots from the field and scored seven points. But the Blue Devils' tight defense on White III helped each of the Orange's four other starters score in double figures, as Syracuse's role players all rose to the occasion to help their team pull off a critical upset.

Three key stats:

• Syracuse shoots 70.8 percent from the field in the second half: The Orange were unstoppable in the second half, pouring in 53 points after putting up just 25 before the break. Part of that was Duke's defense softening up, but Syracuse also made several tough shots, including a few midrange fadeaways from freshman Tyus Battle and a pair of shots off the backboard from more than 20 feet out. Everything seemed to fall for the Orange down the stretch, and the Blue Devils just barely couldn't keep up.
• Duke grabs 16 offensive rebounds: The Blue Devils dominated the glass a year after Syracuse big man Tyler Roberson had his way in the paint with 20 rebounds in Durham. Duke led most of the game despite a field-goal percentage worse than 40 percent thanks to 17 second-chance points. A lot of the Blue Devils' misses from downtown caromed far off the rim, helping guards Allen and Kennard combine for seven offensive rebounds when the ball soared over the heads of the Orange's defenders under the basket.
• Allen scores just eight points: Duke's junior guard recently aggravated a toe injury he has been dealing with all year and was clearly not himself Wednesday. Allen shot just 2-of-11 from the field and did not make many other meaningful contributions to the box score, finishing with just one rebound and one assist. He was also mired in foul trouble all game, picking up his fourth early in the second half and only playing 29 minutes.

Three key plays:

• 18:43, second half: After Kennard drilled a triple to put the Blue Devils in front by nine, Gillon attacked the basket hard for a layup and finished through a foul on Allen for his first two points of a 19-point half. He knocked down the free throw to trim the deficit to six again, and Syracuse did not trail by more than six the rest of the night.
• 5:11, second half: Duke had some momentum in the middle of a 7-2 run even with all of its guards in foul trouble, but Battle got the Orange going again with a contested pull-up jumper with his foot on the 3-point line that he banked in to cut the Blue Devil lead to one. It was a fortuitous break for Syracuse, and the backboard would play an even bigger role a few minutes later.
• 0:00, second half: The Orange got the stop they needed when Kennard had to force up a midrange jumper with the shot clock running down in the closing seconds, and the ball made its way into Gillon's hands with about four seconds left. The graduate student pushed the ball up the floor, pulled up about 25 feet from the basket with Amile Jefferson guarding him closely on his side and calmly buried the triple off the backboard to win the game at the buzzer.

And the Duke game ball goes to.... Jayson Tatum