DURHAM, N.C. — Trevor Cooney raised his arms at the jubilant Syracuse bench. The first time all night that a win was certain was when the final buzzer sounded.

The Cameron Indoor Stadium crowd was raining with boos. The fans that had screamed Duke back into a game it was seemingly out of minutes before begged for a foul. They screamed “you suck” and yelled at the referees and the SU bench well after it was too late for any of it to make a difference.

But the surroundings didn’t matter to the Orange. A lead that never grew to more than eight on either side was finally sealed.

On the back of a gutsy performance from Tyler Roberson and a slew of 3-pointers, Syracuse reinvigorated its season with a 64-62 win over Duke on Monday night. Roberson secured a career-high 20 rebounds. The Orange knocked down 11 shots from long range, overcame a second-half deficit and closed out the type of game it hasn’t been able to in conference play.

 

Syracuse held Duke scoreless for the first five minutes and 19 seconds. In the first half the Blue Devils shot 5-of-21 from 3, and 30 percent from the field overall. But still, SU and Duke traded leads. After the Orange got ahead 5-0, the Blue Devils scored the next five points in 27 seconds.

After Brandon Ingram’s 3-pointer gave the Blue Devils their first lead at 10-9, Frank Howard frantically dribbled the ball into a turnover, accidentally flinging it into the stands as the Cameron Crazies — perched side-by-side since 80 minutes before the game started — were the loudest they had been all night.

It was topped when Grayson Allen single-handedly led the Blue Devils to nine-straight points. The first two were 3s and the last was a drive to the basket where he was fouled. Cooney beat the halftime buzzer by six seconds on a long pull-up 3 nearly 3 feet behind the arc.

Roberson attacked the glass hard after halftime. After securing nine rebounds in the first half he grabbed seven more in the first three and half minutes of the second. Michael Gbinije’s game-tying 3-pointer was made possible by Roberson, who was seemingly untouched in the paint on the offensive glass.

Everything Duke did, Syracuse answered. Ingram’s 3 to extend the lead to as high as six in the second half was erased moments later by transition long balls from Cooney and Malachi Richardson.

The teams traded leads five times in a 3:03 span, and again it was Richardson from the corner who temporarily silenced the Crazies.

When the Blue Devils cut an eight-point SU lead to three, Roberson executed a perfect pick and roll to make it five.

For the first time as members of the ACC, Syracuse left Cameron Indoor as winners. For the first time in nine years, Duke lost three games in a row.

But the past didn’t matter to the Orange. It was all about the present, and a season that now is there for the taking.

Published on January 18, 2016 at 9:08 pm

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