The No. 1 Duke Blue Devils, the betting favorite to win the men’s NCAA Tournament, barely escaped the round of 64 with a 71-65 win over the No. 16 Siena Saints on Thursday.
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The Blue Devils trailed from the 15:31 mark of the first half until the 4:25 mark of the second, when an Isaiah Evans layup finally gave Duke the lead again. The Blue Devils finished the game on a 15-4 run to extinguish any hopes of a shocking upset.
No. 16 seeds have upset No. 1 seeds only twice before in the men’s tourney, in 2018 and 2023.
Gavin Doty was remarkable in a losing effort for the Saints, scoring 21 points. He was aided by big man Francis Folefac, who added 18. But they both cooled off in the second half, as did the rest of the team. After shooting 17-for-31 from the field in the first half, Siena made only eight of its 34 field goal attempts in the second.
At one point, the Saints went more than six minutes without scoring, allowing Duke to get back in front.
The Saints gambled by not making a single substitution until the final minute of the game, nearly becoming the first team since 1979 to play its starters all 40 minutes.
The Boozer brothers, Cameron and Cayden, led the way for the Blue Devils. Cameron scored 22, doing much of his damage from the free-throw line, where he was 13 of 14. Cayden added 19 of his own on 9-of-16 shooting.
The Blue Devils improved to 33-2 on the season with the win. Duke will now play No. 9 TCU — which beat No. 8 Ohio State earlier Thursday — in the round of 32.
