CHESTER, Pa. — When Ben Williams first played Duke in March, his 14-of-22 performance solidified what had mostly been hype through Syracuse’s first six games.

But by the end of the first quarter of his second matchup with the Blue Devils on Sunday, SU head coach John Desko had already decided to pull his established starter to see if Cal Paduda could succeed where Williams could not.

“I thought their guy had figured it out a little bit,” Desko said. “Ben had taken a bunch of faceoffs, just wanted to try something different. Wanted to throw a different person at him.”

Paduda took just three faceoffs and won none of them. Williams, who had won 69 percent of his faceoffs entering the game, ended winning only 11-of-29, marking only the second game this season in which he’s won fewer than half of his attempts.

But Syracuse was more efficient, scoring on 42.9 percent of its shot attempts compared to 32.6 for Duke, and was able to win despite a poor showing from Williams. As a result, No. 4 SU (11-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast) eked out the 15-14 win over No. 6 Duke (11-5, 1-3) in the ACC tournament championship at PPL Park.

“We remember what it’s like to play that sort of style where you got to play your possessions and defense has to be really sound because they might be playing a lot of it,” SU attack Kevin Rice said.

In the first faceoff after Williams was put back into the game to start the second quarter, he and Duke faceoff specialist Kyle Rowe stagnated, each fighting for the ball as they crouched low to the ground, encircling the X. Finally, Rowe got the clamp and harmlessly flipped the ball up to himself as Williams unsuccessfully tried to chase him down.

Rowe barely played in Syracuse’s 19-7 win a month ago. It was his brother Jack Rowe that finished just 12-of-26.

“Kyle’s gotten better,” Duke head coach John Danowski said. “He’s gotten healthier. His timing is coming back. He feels better about himself…We really kind of put the last game to rest.”

With Syracuse up 15-12, Rowe defeated Williams three straight times. The first led to a goal by Thomas Zenker off a rebound. The second ended in a Myles Jones goal just 24 seconds after the faceoff win. And with 2:30 left, Rowe won the last faceoff of the game, giving Duke a chance to tie for the first time in the second half.

But the Syracuse defense held down the Blue Devils, regained possession and ran out the clock to secure its first-ever ACC championship.

“Ben has been great all year,” Rice said. “So if we had to help him out a little bit in one game, then that’s the (least) we can do.”

Published on April 26, 2015 at 5:09 pm

Contact Sam: sblum@syr.edu | @SamBlum3