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View Full Version : MLax: Duke vs. Syracuse, ACC Tournament Semifinal, 1700 EDT, ESPNU



burnspbesq
04-25-2014, 09:46 AM
We all have fond memories of March 23, when Duke dominated the Orange in every aspect of the game on the way to a shocking 21-7 win.

Since then, Cuse has gone 5-0, with one-goal wins over ND and Carolina, a squeaker over Binghamton (yes, I know, the Bearcats are one of the most improved teams in all of D1 lacrosse this year, but a team with championship aspirations should beat them by more than two on its home field) and comfortable wins over Cornell and Hobart.

The biggest storylines for Cuse in recent weeks have been the emergence of Randy Staats as the lethal offensive threat everyone expected him to be, and improved work at the dot from Chris Daddio.

Meanwhile, Duke has been steamrolling everything in its path. The season-ending injury to Luke Duprey is cause for concern, but Brian Dailey is a more-than-capable replacement, Charlie Payton has stepped into the breach and looked comfortable against Rutgers, and freshman Ethan Powley is an elite prospect.

Two keys to tonight's game.

First, Cuse's defensive midfield, a weakness all season, has to play better. The Walsh/Class/Jones unit lit up Peter Macartney and co. for twelve goals (nine assisted) in the regular season meeting (conversely, Duke's d-mids held Cuse's first midfield to one goal).

Second, Cuse has to reduce its possession deficit from minus-16 to something more manageable, and has to limit turnovers. It's bad enough when Brendan Fowler goes 24-for-31, but when you add 16 turnovers to the mix things just get completely out of hand.

I expect Cuse to come out on fire, to physically challenge Duke all over the field, and to shoot better than the 26 percent they rang up on March 23.

Bob Green
04-25-2014, 05:18 PM
Duke 2, Syracuse 1 midway through the 1st quarter. Duke's second goal came on a great rebound and quick shot by Deemer Class.

Bob Green
04-25-2014, 05:35 PM
End of 1st quarter: Duke 5, Syracuse 2.

burnspbesq
04-25-2014, 06:18 PM
First team to 20 wins. Duke D is out of sync. Loss of Duprey is hurting communication. Zenker has been caught in bad match ups several times.

Bob Green
04-25-2014, 06:19 PM
Halftime: Duke 10, Syracuse 8. A sloppy start to the 2nd quarter for Duke allowed Syracuse to surge ahead before Duke scored four straight goals to take the lead into halftime. Overall, a very entertaining game so far.

OZZIE4DUKE
04-25-2014, 07:07 PM
Update please. It was 12-8 when we left the restaurant should be 4th quarter by now. LGD!

Bob Green
04-25-2014, 07:12 PM
15-14 Duke with 57 seconds left but Syracuse has the ball due to a Duke turnover.

Bob Green
04-25-2014, 07:16 PM
Final: Syracuse 16, Duke 15. Disastrous final 1:30 for Duke.

Bob Green
04-25-2014, 07:22 PM
The critical mistake was at the 1:27 mark when Myles Jones committed a turnover with a bad pass. We were too aggressive in a situation where we should have burned some clock.

burnspbesq
04-25-2014, 07:30 PM
Poor shot selection in the fourth quarter made Wardwell look like a first-team All-American.

Poor off-ball defense on the last four Syracuse goals.

Zenker got stuck in bad matchups all night because Duprey wasn't out there to call switches early.

Arguably should have called time-out with 1:30 or so to go and set up the delay game to force Cuse to chase.

Daddio violated on the last face-off, in a big way, but that non-call didn't cost us the game. This was self-inflicted.

Arrrrggggghhhh.

roywhite
04-25-2014, 08:10 PM
Final: Syracuse 16, Duke 15. Disastrous final 1:30 for Duke.

Well, that last couple minutes was tough to watch. Would hate to see a loss like that in the NCAA Tournament.

A valuable learning experience? Hope so.

-bdbd
04-25-2014, 08:31 PM
Absolute heartbreaker.

Duke was up 4 with about 11 minutes to go. We played veryt conservative and Syracuse tied it with about 5 to go. Duke went up one, and had the ball with 1:30 to go... butplayed TOO aggressively and had a turnover in front of Syracuse net. Syracuse ties it with 13 seconds left after a beautiful blind, behind the back pass in front of the Duke goal. Then Syr. win the face-off and score with under 1 second remaining to win it. Just brutal.

MCFinARL
04-25-2014, 09:00 PM
Well, that last couple minutes was tough to watch. Would hate to see a loss like that in the NCAA Tournament.

A valuable learning experience? Hope so.

That is certainly a possibility--and it's worth noting that in 2010 and 2013, when Duke won the NCAA championship, they did not win the ACC championship. In 2007-09 and 2012, when Duke did win the ACC championship, they did not win the NCAA championship. It can't hurt for them to be reminded how hard it is, and how focused you have to be, to win a championship.

Clearly the defense needs to do some work to figure out communication without Duprey on the field.

And a late game timeout, as burnspbesq noted above, would probably have been a good idea.

The ESPNU commentators noted that midfield depth may be an issue for Duke going forward. Late in the game the first midfield ended up having to play some long stretches on defense, and they started to look a bit gassed. Myles Jones in particular, who played extremely well early in the game, missed a couple of plays on defense and made that key mistake on offense. Jones has been getting better and better all year and hopefully will learn from this, and maybe the coaches can make some adjustments as well.

MCFinARL
04-25-2014, 09:42 PM
Meanwhile, in the snooze fest that is the Maryland Notre Dame game, it's tied 4-4 with 10+ minutes to play. I wouldn't mind seeing Notre Dame pull this out--it would make the loss to Syracuse sting a little less. But possibly, for the good of the game of lacrosse, these two teams should not be allowed to play each other very often. They have had some stupefyingly low scoring games over the years.

MCFinARL
04-25-2014, 10:11 PM
Notre Dame wins, 6-5, on a late goal with fewer than 5 seconds left to beat Md. and advance to the final against Syracuse.

burnspbesq
04-25-2014, 10:35 PM
Notre Dame wins, 6-5, on a late goal with fewer than 5 seconds left to beat Md. and advance to the final against Syracuse.

And Lehigh wraps up a night of buzzer-beaters by scoring with three seconds left to beat Army.

greybeard
04-26-2014, 09:07 PM
Cornell was up 4 with 3 minutes to go in a national championship game. Syracuse finishes. Best coach in the game; last quarter, the guy has his guys ready and deploys remarkably.