The Syracuse Orange reentered the Dome after snapping their a three-game losing streak, defeating the California Golden Bears 75-66 on the West Coast before hosting the Duke Blue Devils in clearly Syracuse's largest on-campus crowd of the 2024-25 season.
Duke came into this match-up undefeated in Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) play at 11-0, with their only two losses coming in their non-conference contests with the Kentucky Wildcats of the Southeastern Conference (SEC), 77-72, and to the Kansas Jayhawks of the Big 12 Conference, 75-72.
Those losses came within the Blue Devils' first six games of the season, meaning they came into Central New York on a 15-game winning streak.
Syracuse headed back to their home-court with a losing record in the ACC, at 4-7, and a losing record overall, at 10-12.
Down 20-9 to the Blue Devils, the Orange did go on a 5-0 run in this game to bring the score to two possessions of separation, with the Orange down 20-14.
Within a time period of 2:02 (from 10:53 to 8:51), senior center Naheem McLeod had four points for Syracuse which aided them to the 20-14 deficit, coming off the bench for some much-needed offense.
But what was a six-point game doubled to a 12-point game inside three minutes before halftime, with the Blue Devils ahead 30-18.
Duke would head to the locker room ahead by 14, 37-23.
Over four minutes into the second half, senior forward Jyare Davis had Syracuse's only points, with two field goals for a total of four points.
With under 14 minutes to play, the Blue Devils had stretched their lead out to 20+ points, ahead 53-31.
Duke would keep their foot on the pedal all the way out of the Dome, with a 29-point victory, putting 83 on Syracuse, with Syracuse ending with 54.
The Blue Devils would have five players attain double-figures in scoring: junior guard Tyrese Proctor with 16,
Playing in only seven of Syracuse's prior 22 games coming into this match-up, McLeod concluded this contest 4-for-4 from the field and 2-for-2 from the charity stripe, with 10 points, two rebounds, and no fouls.
McLeod had a total of 25 minutes played amongst the prior seven games this season where he saw action, with six points cumulatively.
In comparison, he accumulated 22 minutes in this game alone.
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