GREENVILLE, S.C. — Duke, the top-ranked overall seed, narrowly averted a stunning defeat to commence the NCAA tournament on Thursday, compelled to recover from a 13-point deficit and seize a permanent lead in the concluding 5 minutes to best 16th-seeded Siena 71-65.
Cameron Boozer amassed 22 points and 13 rebounds for the East Region’s principal team, which, despite sinking its initial four shots, necessitated a comeback against a courageous underdog fielding only five players until the very end.
Nevertheless, the Saints confronted the Blue Devils (33-2) with vigor throughout the contest.
At the start of the week, the number one seeds held a dominant 158-2 record against 16 seeds in the tournament, with Virginia’s loss to UMBC in 2018 and Purdue’s loss to Fairleigh Dickinson in 2023 standing as the sole exceptions.
Duke, a venerable program boasting five NCAA championships, found itself in grave peril for much of Thursday, almost becoming another name on that list, prior to finally gaining mastery of the game in the last 8 minutes.
Gavin Doty led the Saints (23-12) with 21 points, and his third three-pointer put Siena in front 61-56 with 7:53 left. However, Duke responded by scoring 11 points without reply, ultimately securing the lead for good.
Duke, favored by 28.5 points at the close, was 11 points behind at the break, thereby becoming the first-ever No. 1 seed to trail a 16 seed by a double-digit margin at halftime.
This report incorporated details from The Associated Press.