No. 1 Duke Survives First-round Ncaa Tournament Scare Against No. 16 Siena

The No. 1 Duke Blue Devils, nan betting favourite to triumph nan men’s NCAA Tournament, hardly escaped nan information of 64 pinch a 71-65 triumph complete nan No. 16 Siena Saints connected Thursday.

The Blue Devils trailed from nan 15:31 people of nan first half until nan 4:25 people of nan second, erstwhile an Isaiah Evans layup yet gave Duke nan lead again. The Blue Devils vanished nan crippled connected a 15-4 tally to extinguish immoderate hopes of a shocking upset.

No. 16 seeds person upset No. 1 seeds only doubly earlier successful nan men’s tourney, successful 2018 and 2023.

Gavin Doty was singular successful a losing effort for nan Saints, scoring 21 points. He was aided by large man Francis Folefac, who added 18. But they some cooled disconnected successful nan 2nd half, arsenic did nan remainder of nan team. After shooting 17-for-31 from nan section successful nan first half, Siena made only 8 of its 34 section extremity attempts successful nan second.

At 1 point, nan Saints went much than six minutes without scoring, allowing Duke to get backmost successful front.

The Saints gambled by not making a azygous substitution until nan last infinitesimal of nan game, astir becoming nan first squad since 1979 to play its starters each 40 minutes.

The Boozer brothers, Cameron and Cayden, led nan measurement for nan Blue Devils. Cameron scored 22, doing overmuch of his harm from nan free-throw line, wherever he was 13 of 14. Cayden added 19 of his ain connected 9-of-16 shooting.

The Blue Devils improved to 33-2 connected nan play pinch nan win. Duke will now play No. 9 TCU — which hit No. 8 Ohio State earlier Thursday — successful nan information of 32.