The Siena dream did not quite make it through the gates. Siena deserves a ton of credit for battling with the No. 1 overall team in the NCAA Tournament. The Duke Blue Devils escaped the Round of 64 with a comeback win after trailing by as much as 13 points at one point in the second half. The 13-point deficit for Duke was the most ever for a one-seed against a 16-seed in the history of the tournament.
Everybody saw this result coming, but nobody outside of Siena thought that they would only lose by six points. A rough scoring drought late in the second half allowed the Blue Devils to control the game in the final seconds.
Siena led 43-32 at the break, and the Duke defense then stepped up in a major way in the final 20 minutes. Siena would only score 22 points, and as said above, had a major scoring drought that allowed Duke to take the lead and hold on. Siena led for 71% of the game … over Duke.
Duke has lost some games early in the tournament before as a high seed, but as the No. 1 overall team in the Big Dance, they must get to the Final Four, or the season is a failure.
The Blue Devils shot 41% for the game and only 19% from beyond the arc. Their 5-26 from deep almost sent them home early. On the bright side, Duke was 18-21 from the charity stripe, and they controlled the boards 43-31. Cameron Boozer led the Blue Devils with 22 points, and he added 13 rebounds, three assists, and one block. His brother Cayden balled out also with 19 points, two steals, and five assists.
For Siena, all five starters played all 40 minutes. They were very gassed at the end, maybe the decision to play them the entire game lost them the outcome. Gavin Doty had 21 points for Siena.
