No. 7 Duke Shoots Past Syracuse for Seventh Straight Road Win

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Sophomore Mark Williams scored a career-high 28 points, freshman Paolo Banchero had 21 and fellow rookie AJ Griffin added 20 as No. 7 Duke raced to an early lead and beat Syracuse 97-72 on Saturday night at the Carrier Dome.

It was the final regular-season meeting between the two winningest coaches in Division I history — Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski (1,195) and Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim (997). It also marked Coach K’s 200th road win in the Atlantic Coast Conference, extending his record.

Duke (25-4, 15-3 ACC) maintained sole possession of first place in the conference with a dominant wire-to-wire performance. The Blue Devils also won their seventh consecutive road game, extending the longest active streak by a Power 5 team.

Banchero had career highs in assists (nine) and three-pointers (four) while Griffin hit 6-of-10 from deep as Duke finished .469 (15-of-32) behind the arc. Williams added 12 rebounds – eight on the offensive glass – for his seventh double-double of the year.

Buddy Boeheim led Syracuse (15-14, 9-9 ACC) with 23 points, while Joe Girard netted 18. After Duke shot out to a 14-0 lead in the game’s opening four minutes and extended the lead to 30 later in the first half, the Orange were never able to cut the deficit below 15.

Banchero and Griffin had 18 and 14 in the first half, respectively, combining to hit 8-of-11 three-pointers. The Blue Devils shot 18-of-30 (.600) and 10-of-17 (.588) from behind the arc in the period.

The game drew 31,803 at the Carrier Dome, marking the highest-attended game in college basketball this season.

Duke wraps up a three-game road swing with a trip to Pittsburgh on Tuesday night. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. on ACC Network.