By JOEDY McCREARY
For Matt Jones and No. 20 Duke, all these losses are starting to leave scars.
The Blue Devils lost their third straight game Monday night, falling to Syracuse 64-62 for their longest slide in nine years.
“The game is tremendous, and it can be incredibly great to you, and it can be incredibly cruel to you,” coach Mike Krzyzewski said. “And right now, we’re going through the cruel part.”
Marshall Plumlee had 19 points and 17 rebounds to lead Duke (14-5, 3-3 Atlantic Coast Conference). After receiving their lowest national ranking in two years earlier in the day, the reigning national champs are on their longest losing streak since the 2006-07 team dropped its final four games.
With a thin bench made thinner over the past several weeks because of key forward Amile Jefferson’s broken foot, they are in danger of falling out of the poll for the first time since that season.
“We’re playing our hearts out,” Krzyzewski said. “That hasn’t been rewarded.”
After the game, Jones showed off a scratch shaped like a human mouth on his left hand, and he said he acquired on a frantic final play on which no foul was called.
“I can’t really go to the ref and show him,” Jones said.
Tyler Roberson had 14 points and a career-high 20 rebounds — a record for visiting players at Cameron Indoor Stadium. He broke the previous mark of 18 set in 1957 and most recently matched by North Carolina’s Sean May in 2005.
“Just anticipating misses and just going after everything,” Roberson said. “When you do that, good things happen.”
Trevor Cooney, Malachi Richardson and Duke transfer Michael Gbinije all scored 14 points for Syracuse (13-7, 3-4 Atlantic Coast Conference), which won for the first time at Cameron and improved to 3-1 since Hall of Fame coach Jim Boeheim returned from his nine-game suspension. The Orange have not allowed more than 62 points in any game during their three-game winning streak.
Duke had two chances in the final minute to take the lead after Plumlee made it 63-62 with 31.3 seconds left.
Gbinije missed the front end of a 1-and-1 with 29.1 seconds left, and after the Orange burned three fouls to give, Grayson Allen missed a flip shot in the paint with about 7 seconds left and Roberson tapped the rebound out to Richardson.
Richardson made a free throw with 2.1 seconds left and Jones rebounded the miss, took off down court and appeared to draw contact near midcourt but no fouls were called as the buzzer sounded. Krzyzewski used the word “amazing” nine times during his postgame news conference while describing the end of the game.
Boeheim claimed the latest matchup of the two winningest active men’s coaches in Division I. He and Krzyzewski have combined for 1,906 victories.
Allen finished with 18 points and Brandon Ingram added 13 points and 11 rebounds for Duke. Freshman Luke Kennard, who scored a season-best 30 points two days earlier against Notre Dame, failed to score and was 0 for 9 from the field, missing all seven of his 3-point attempts.
COURTSIDE
As Boeheim argued for a foul call midway through the first half, the Cameron Crazies chanted “Take your coat off” — a reference to the jacket-shedding meltdown that earned him an ejection here two years ago. Boeheim playfully pretended to remove his sport coat, cracking a smile as the Crazies cheered him.
SWEET FAREWELL
Gbinije walked off the Cameron court a winner in his final game there. He came to Duke along with Plumlee and current NBA guard Austin Rivers in 2011 but transferred to Syracuse after his freshman season. “This was definitely an important game for me,” Gbinije said.
TIP-INS
Syracuse: The Orange spent some extra time this weekend in North Carolina. Instead of returning to New York after winning at Wake Forest on Saturday, they bused over to Durham.
Duke: Duke attempted 37 3-pointers to just 25 shots from 2-point range. … Duke missed its first eight shots over the opening 5½ minutes before Jones hit a corner 3. … The Blue Devils debuted their lowest national ranking since they were No. 23 in mid-January 2014. That drop also was preceded by losses to Clemson and Notre Dame.
UP NEXT
Syracuse plays at No. 13 Virginia on Saturday.
Duke plays at North Carolina State on Saturday.
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Follow Joedy McCreary at http://twitter.com/joedyap. His work can be found at http://bigstory.ap.org/content/joedy-mccreary
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