The first two installments of the Duke-Syracuse series as ACC foes were instant classics. In anticipation of round three Saturday night at the Carrier Dome, we take a look back at the first two in detail.
Act I
No. 2 Syracuse (20-0, 7-0 in the ACC) vs. No. 17 Duke (17-4, 6-2)—The Carrier Dome, Syracuse, N.Y.—Feb. 1, 2014
People wanted a marquee matchup, and that's what they got.
The Orange returned home to the Dome after a pair of double-digit road wins, their unblemished record still intact. On the other end of the sideline, the Blue Devils are riding a five-game winning streak of their own, correcting themselves after two early stumbles in ACC play. The last four of those victories have come by double-digits, but a win in a new road environment—in front of the largest on-campus crowd ever to watch an NCAA basketball game—will take something extra:
18:53 remaining, first half: It takes some time for Duke to adjust to Syracuse's vaunted 2-3 zone. The Blue Devils bring Amile Jefferson up from the baseline to screen the inside of the zone, but nothing materializes. Jabari Parker's post entry pass is deflected away.
12:52 remaining first half: Duke is finding its way through the long-limbed Orange defenders, looking to spread the floor after getting the ball to the high post. Marshall Plumlee doesn't turn to look at the basket when he receives the pass, but kicks it back out to Quinn Cook, who finds a cutting Parker for a dunk to even the score at 10-10. On the other end, Syracuse point guard Tyler Ennis is making the Blue Devils pay off the bounce.
A few possessions later, Andre Dawkins cans a trey to put Duke ahead by three. The senior was up and down with his stroke—and his playing time—all season, but this was his best stretch of the year. Dawkins drilled 6-of-7 triples in the Jan. 27 win at Pittsburgh and hit four more against the Orange, but Duke opens just 3-of-10 from downtown. That will change.
4:54 remaining, first half: Syracuse sharpshooter Trevor Cooney splashes home a pair of free-throws to give the Orange a 28-23 lead and continue a 10-3 run. Syracuse is a perfect 7-of-7 from the line through the first 15 minutes; Duke is just 1-of-1, as several Blue Devils are in danger of getting into serious foul trouble.
0:01 remaining, first half: Jefferson slams home a dunk just before the first-half buzzer to send the Blue Devils to the locker room down just 38-35. The Philadelphia native was limited by foul trouble in the first half but still turned in nine points in the frame, on his way to a 14-point, seven-rebound, five-assist night. Duke shot 41.4 percent from the floor—including six made triples—but let the Orange hit 13-of-24 shots, led by the usual suspects in Ennis, Jerami Grant and C.J. Fair. The fearsome post tandem was just getting started for the Orange.
17:37 remaining, second half: A bulldozing drive by Grant forces head coach Mike Krzyzewski into a timeout with Duke trailing 45-40. Fair and Grant are hitting seemingly everything, but the Blue Devils are hanging around thanks to good ball movement and balanced scoring, surviving a 3-for-11 shooting performance from Parker to this point.
16:17 remaining, second half: Ennis turns it over near midcourt and Hood finds a wide-open Sulaimon, who promptly misses the lay-up. But Jefferson cleans up his classmates' miss to make it 45-43. That would be all for Jefferson, though—the sophomore did not record another point or rebound the rest of the way.
12:10 remaining, second half: To this point, it has been Duke killing Syracuse on the offensive glass, despite being undersized against the likes of Rakeem Christmas and Baye-Moussa Keita. But Christmas picks up a loose ball and sends it out to an unguarded Cooney on the left wing, and the junior puts the Orange up four and sends the Carrier Dome into a frenzy. Hood quickly answers back with a 3-pointer of his own for Duke. On the next trip down, though, Jefferson gets whistled for his fourth foul and is forced to head to the bench.
11:05 remaining, second half: This is Parker's signature shot of the game, a drop-step spin move from the high post, drawing contact from Keita and Fair and fading away for the bucket. The ensuing free-throw gives Duke a 56-54 lead, but the freshman picks up two fouls in the span of five seconds on the defensive end, saddling him next to Jefferson with four personals. So begins the danger zone for the Blue Devils, playing four guards with Plumlee—not a serious scoring threat—at the high post to pop the zone.
9:27 remaining, second half: Fair punishes Duke for its lack of size, getting position on Dawkins and flipping up a floater that catches a friendly Carrier Dome bounce—plus the foul. It's Dawkins' fourth, further shrinking the available lineup for Krzyzewski with so much time remaining. After the senior scores again to give him 20 points, the Blue Devils burn their second-to-last timeout and sub Jefferson back in to slow down Fair.
6:30 remaining, second half: Danger zone is in full swing, as Cooney finishes a floater to put Syracuse up by seven, its largest lead to date.
6:03 remaining, second half: Tyler Thornton hadn't scored until now, but chooses this moment to drop in a deep triple to give Duke some much-needed offense.
5:10 remaining, second half: Thornton hits from deep on back-to-back trips, answering a Fair runner with another triple, this one from dead-on at the top of the key.
4:25 remaining, second half: Reload. Repeat. Tyler. Thornton. Again. The senior hit the top of the backboard with a corner 3-point attempt on Duke's first possession of the game, but that's now an afterthought after a corner trey. He started the game but began the second half on the bench, but that's now nine points for him on three trips and a 70-68 deficit for the Blue Devils.
2:18 remaining, second half: Back-to-back empty trips for Duke, trailing by three. Dawkins sends a pass out of bounds, and after an Orange turnover on the other end, Hood is forced to launch a desperation heave to beat the shot clock buzzer that thuds off the glass and into the arms of Fair.
1:42 remaining, second half: Parker is called for an offensive foul, his fifth. The Blue Devils must play the rest of the way without their best player.
1:06 remaining, second half: Cook hits a pair of free throws to bring Duke within one, but Ennis—clutch as ever under pressure—hits a runner to put the Orange back up by three.
47.6 second remaining, second half: Sulaimon's big shot! No, not that one, yet, although this one is huge. The sophomore hits a triple from the top of the key and is fouled by Cooney, tying the game but clanking the free throw.
30.6 seconds remaining, second half: Jim Boeheim doesn't use a timeout, and Jefferson fouls Christmas as the Orange big man went to set a ball screen for Ennis. It's Jefferson fifth and final foul, rendering him unavailable, but the whistle more importantly puts Christmas on the line, where he splits the pair.
From here, Duke can hold for the last shot, a chance to win the game. The Blue Devils swing it around the perimeter, sucking air out of the ball, looking for an opening. Finally, they find one, with 9.2 seconds left, as a driving Sulaimon hits a cutting Thornton on the block.
Thornton is briefly open, but doesn't shoot. Unselfish as always, the senior looks to set up Dawkins underneath for the game-winning basket, only Dawkins isn't looking for the pass. He reacts just in time to adjust his feet along the baseline like a wide receiver trying to tip-toe his feet to complete a catch, then shovels the ball back to Thornton in the key. This time, it's Thornton who is forced to react to a missile, and Ennis comes away with it, seemingly having survived for win No. 21.
4.6 seconds remaining, second half: Ennis sinks both freebies to make it 78-75, leaving Duke in a three-point hole, needing to go the full length of the floor. With no timeouts. Sulaimon gets the inbounds pass and turns up the left sideline. Fair nearly runs into him near halfcourt—it's unclear whether he was trying to foul or not—but whiffs, and the Houston native streaks upcourt, stopping at the top of the key and elevating above Cooney as the light comes on behind the backboard.
Splash.
Tie game. Overtime. The biggest shot of Sulaimon's career. A wry smile from Boeheim. A series of "Unbelievable"s from broadcaster Dick Vitale. And a stunned crowd, as if the Carrier Dome's bubble were slowly deflating.
Overtime belongs to Syracuse's Jerami Grant. With Jefferson and Parker relegated to the bench, the forward feasts on the likes of Dawkins and Sulaimon, pouring in eight points in the bonus session. Duke hangs tough thanks to the long ball—at one point the Blue Devils had made 16 two-point baskets and 15 treys—but two Grant free throws put Duke in an 88-87 hole with 39 seconds to play.
14.2 seconds remaining, overtime: Down one, Hood drives the lane with only one thing in mind: a dunk for the win. Christmas elevates with him, and the redshirt sophomore's attempt at an epic flush bounces harmlessly off the rim. Slow-motion replays ignite a fiery debate—foul or no foul—but no whistle blows.
The teams trade free throws as Syracuse fouls Sulaimon to prevent another trey, and Fair hits 1-of-2 to put the Orange ahead, 91-89. Sulaimon gets the ball with a chance to be the hero yet again, but is rushed by multiple defenders and has to give it off to Cook. The junior's off-balance shot at the horn is too strong, and the Orange escape victorious in the first epic meeting between the new ACC foes.
Act II
No. 1 Syracuse (25-1, 12-1) vs. No. 5 Duke (21-6, 10-4)—Cameron Indoor Stadium, Durham, N.C.—Feb. 22, 2014
Things are beginning to shift in the ACC. The Orange hold the top spot in the AP Poll but are showing signs of mortality. Syracuse needed a buzzer-beater by Ennis from halfcourt to beat Pittsburgh on the road, then suffered a home loss—their first defeat all year—to a struggling Boston College team. Duke has won four of five, but is looking to avoid a two-game losing streak after dropping the rescheduled game at rival North Carolina two days earlier.
16:07 remaining, first half: Plumlee gets some early minutes off the bench and makes an immediate impact, stuffing home a missed Sulaimon 3-pointer to tie the game at 8-8.
13:31 remaining, first half: Dawkins is whistled for an intentional foul, preventing former Duke player Michael Gbinije from getting out in transition. The redshirt sophomore hits both free throws to make it 12-8, Syracuse. The Blue Devils can't take the lid off the basket on the other end, as it grows to a 9-0 Orange run on a Gbinije triple. Hood finally finds the range with a corner triple, set up by a Plumlee pass late in the shot clock.
7:58 remaining, first half: Still out on the floor, Plumlee is in attack mode. He rises up for a one-handed dunk but is fouled hard. On the previous Orange possession, Grant had skyed for a would-be poster of his own, but the Warsaw, Ind., native contested the attempt well.
5:17 remaining, first half: Cook is hounding Ennis, who turns it over on back-to-back possessions with a second straight ill-advised pass. The rematch is not the best of days for the freshman, who will finish just 2-of-13 from the floor.
1:01 remaining, first half: Fair dribbles the ball off his foot, and Thornton feeds Sulaimon in transition to knot the game at 26-26. To this point, Duke still has not had a lead but is staying close despite a poor shooting effort.
Halftime: The teams head to the locker rooms tied 26-26. It's a season-low points in a half for the Blue Devils and a far cry from the shootout at the Carrier Dome three weeks earlier. Syracuse grabbed 13 offensive rebounds in the first 20 minutes but only turned them into six second-chance points. In his return to Cameron Indoor, Gbinije poured in eight first-half points.
16:20 remaining, second half: Parker attacks the rim late in the shot clock and draws the fourth foul on Christmas before the first media timeout of the second half. He heads to the bench as Keita—who picked up three fouls of his own before intermission—checks back in. The big man picks up his fourth with 12:51 to go, putting Syracuse in much the situation Duke faced in the first meeting: its two rim protectors on the bench in foul trouble.
10:30 remaining, second half: Parker gets out in transition and goes right at Gbinije, getting a lay-up to go while drawing contact. The ensuing free throw puts Duke up 44-41 as the Blue Devils capitalize against the smaller Orange frontcourt.
7:42 remaining, second half: The lead expands as Cook drills his second wing 3-pointer of the half, putting Duke ahead 51-45, the Blue Devils' largest margin of the game. Cook's offense has been helpful, but his defense on Ennis has been critical. Boeheim needs a timeout to rally the troops.
4:25 remaining, second half: Grant keeps Syracuse hanging around, but Parker rattles the rim with a tip-slam of a Hood 3-point attempt to send the Crazies into a fervor. Hood's shot bounces off the front iron and skies high into the air—not unlike a Parker triple that fell into the tin in the first half—and the Chicago native reaches up and over Cooney for the dunk.
1:30 remaining, second half: Syracuse slices the lead to one with free-throws from Grant and Cooney—held to just four points in this contest—but Parker has the answer, as he seemingly as all night. A strong post move down low against Christmas, who has to be wary with four fouls, nets the freshman two of his 19 points, extending the lead to 59-56. Parker rips away the rebound from four Syracuse players on the next defensive possession, but misses the front end of the one-and-one. The Orange get a much-needed bucket on a Christmas dunk with less than 40 seconds to play to come within 59-58.
24.9 seconds remaining, second half: Sulaimon splits a pair of free throws on either side of a Syracuse timeout, as Boeheim draws up his final play. The plan is to go to Fair, who has dazzled again with strong moves moving across the key.
Fair gets the ball in the left corner and drives baseline, seemingly with a clear path the basket to tie the game at 60. But Hood rotates over from his man, Grant, and steps in front, forcing a collision. Both players hit the deck, the whistle blows, Fair's scoop shot dinks off the glass and in and all eyes turn to the official.
Charge.
Boeheim storms out onto the court, half-removing his jacket before thinking better of it. He's immediately assessed a technical, with another one coming soon afterward. His ejection sends Cook to the free-throw line for four free throws—he makes three of them—and the ball that effectively put the game out of reach. It's vindication for Hood after not getting the whistle on the game-deciding call at the Carrier Dome.
Act III
Saturday evening can't come fast enough.
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