Looking to maintain the hold on sole possession of first place in the ACC standings, No. 7 Duke puts its five-game winning streak on the line Saturday night vs. Syracuse at the Carrier Dome.
Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim have combined for 2,191 wins – the winningest coaches in D-I history.
The Blue Devils have won five straight overall and the team’s six-game road winning streak is the longest active by a power conference team. In program history, Duke has had only five ACC road winning streaks longer than the current six-game streak. Coach K’s 199 ACC road wins are a conference record.
About Duke
- Leading the ACC in both field goal defense (.407) and three-point defense (.301), the Blue Devils have allowed opponents to shoot .289 from three-point range since Jan. 1 — the second best three-point defense by a power conference team in that span.
- Duke is 29th nationally this season in defending the three-point line (.301), 45th in field goal defense (.407), 11th in blocked shots (5.6) and seventh in scoring margin (+14.4) — leads ACC in each category.
- Freshman AJ Griffin, who scored 10 of Duke’s 13 points in the final 3:39 at Virginia, is averaging 16.2 points and shooting 37-of-70 (.529) from the field and 18-of-32 (.563) from three-point range over Duke’s six-game road winning streak.
- Griffin is the team’s second-leading scorer on the road this season (14.1) and shooting a team-best 23-of-41 (.561) from three on the road.
- Sophomore Mark Williams is the nation’s only player shooting better than .700 from the field and .700 at the free throw line (min. 100 FG attempts). His 68 dunks are the fourth most in a season at Duke.
- Junior Wendell Moore Jr., ranks third in the ACC in assists (4.5), 11th in steals (1.54) and sixth in assist/turnover ratio (2.17). He joins Wake Forest’s Alondes Williams as the only power conference players nationally averaging 13.0+ points, 5.0+ rebounds and 4.0+ assists while shooting .500+ from the field.
- Duke enters the Syracuse game with five players averaging double figures in points and four averaging at least four rebounds.
- Six different Blue Devils have led the team in scoring over the last seven games — most recently Jeremy Roach’s season-high 15 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-3 from three-point range at Virginia on Wednesday.
- Duke’s six-game road winning streak is the longest active by a power conference team and the fifth-longest active overall. The Blue Devils are 7-2 on the road this season — 7-1 in on the road in the ACC with a scoring margin of +10.3, which is on pace to be Duke’s largest on the road in the ACC since 2002 (+12.7).
- Duke’s four losses this season have come by a total of nine points – five at Ohio State (71-66), two at home against Miami (76-74), one in overtime at Florida State (79-78) and one to Virginia (69-68). In each, Duke held a lead in the games’ final 70 seconds.
About Syracuse
- The Orange have won six of their last eight outings.
- Syracuse is finishing their schedule against the top four teams in the league.
- Graduate student Jimmy Boeheim has posted back-to-back 15-point first halves for the Orange. He’s averaging 23.5 points over the last two games.
- Syracuse is 15-13 overall, 9-8 in the ACC and has won two of three.
- The Orange are scoring 77.0 points per game, paced by the ACC’s second leading scorer Buddy Boeheim (19.0 ppg), who has hit a team-leading 75 three-pointers.
- Buddy’s brother Jimmy is the team’s second leading scorer at 13.9 points, while Joseph Girard III has made 74 three-pointers and shooting .418 from downtown.
- Girard leads the ACC in three-point accuracy (.418) and in free throw shooting (.897), is fourth in the ACC in assists (4.3) and sixth in steals (1.71).
Duke vs Syracuse
- Saturday’s game is just the 19th all-time meeting between Duke and Syracuse, with the Blue Devils leading 12-6.
- Duke has won five straight in the series and has claimed eight of the 12 regular-season meetings since Syracuse joined the ACC.
- Four different Blue Devils each scored 15 points, including freshman AJ Griffin who was 5-of-9 from three-point range – in Duke’s 79-59 win at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Jan. 22.
- The Blue Devils had 25 assists in the earlier meeting and limited the Orange to just 5-of-29 from three-point range.
- In two career games vs. Syracuse, Mark Williams is 15-of-18 (.833) from the field and averaging 16.5 points and 9.0 rebounds.
- Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim served as an assistant on Mike Krzyzewski’s Team USA staffs that won Olympic gold medals in 2008, 2012 and 2016.
- The two coaches are first and second, respectively, in all-time D-I men’s basketball wins – Coach K with 1,194 and Boeheim with 997.
How to Watch
Time: 6:00 p.m. (ET)
TV: ESPN (Dave O’Brien, Cory Alexander)
Stream: Watch ESPN
Radio: Blue Devils Sports Network (David Shumate, John Roth)
Per Release
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