Tournament favorite Duke survives Siena upset bid to advance in March Madness
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- Duke rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to beat Siena 71-65.
- Cameron Boozer led Duke with 22 points as the Blue Devils tightened defense.
- Siena threatened early with Gavin Doty and Francis Folefac fueling the run.
Siena coach Gerry McNamara said he never mentioned UMBC or Fairleigh Dickinson to his team, never told them of how as a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament they stunned everyone by upsetting No. 1.
“I just said it had happened before,” McNamara said.
No one expected it to happen again Thursday. Not against Duke, the No. 1 overall seed in the 2026 NCAA Tournament and the top-ranked team in the country.
Siena looked the part of a giant killer for much of the game, making shots, feeling it, but Duke was too tough in the end, gamely taking a 71-65 victory in the opening round of the East Region at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
The Blue Devils (33-2) will have a second-round matchup Saturday at 5:15 p.m. with No. 9 seed Texas Christian (23-11), which held off No. 8 Ohio State for a 66-64 victory Thursday.
Cameron Boozer had 22 points and 13 rebounds, Cayden Boozer a career-high 19 points and Isaiah Evans also had a double-double -- 16 points and 10 boards -- for the Blue Devils, who maintained their poise to win their 12th consecutive game. Sophomore guard Gavin Doty had 21 points, 16 in the first half, and hard-working Francis Folefac 18 for the Saints (23-12), the MAAC champions.
“We came out with the mentality it was going to be handed to us, and obviously that’s not what happended,” Cameron Boozer said. “We got punched in the mouth.
“This is going to help us. You need a scare going into March Madness and this is our scare. We’ll learn from it.”
After falling behind 43-32 at halftime, stunning nearly everyone in the building, the Blue Devils played with a lot more urgency and purpose in the second half. The ACC champions tightened up their defense, went zone at times to throw Siena off balance, and extended the defensive pressure full court to make Siena strain.
The Devils were able to run, getting transition dunks from Isaiah Evans and Dame Sarr, cutting into the Siena lead. The Saints, who enjoyed themselves most of the first half, suddenly were the team seemingly unsure of itself, taking rushed shots, making mistakes, tiring, being outrebounded 30-13 in the second half.
Duke made it a one-point game on an Evans 3-pointer midway through the half, but Folefac scored inside, then popped in a 3 from the wing, his second of the game.
Back and forth it went. Duke’s Cayden Boozer hit a 3 but Doty did the same.
Cameron Boozer’s free throw with 5:08 left made it a 61-61 game, bringing Duke even. An Evans drive gave Duke the lead with 4:25 left – the Devils’ first since the opening five minutes of the game – to cap a 7-0 run as the Saints were scoreless for four minutes.
“We didn’t want to go home,” Cayden Boozer said. “There was no part of us that was going to allow that. We did what we needed to do.”
The game started so smoothly for Duke. Maliq Brown won the opening jump, then rose high for a slam dunk. After a Siena miss, Cayden Boozer hit a shot and the Blue Devils seemed off and running.
But after scoring 10 points on their first four possessions, the Devils started shooting blanks, a few on hurried shots. The Saints also sealed off the defensive board, allowing no putbacks, and then went to work in their offensive sets.
And the Saints’ shots dropped. Doty and Brendan Coyle each nailed a pair of 3’s – Coyle once running back waving three fingers on both hands to the crowd – while Folefac, listed at 6-7 and 245 pounds, went to work inside.
The Devils once doubled up on Folefac inside to force a miss, only to have Mulvey come in from the back side for a follow slam. Mulvey stuck out his tongue as he headed back on defense, clearly enjoying the moment.
“We didn’t come out with the defensive mindset we’ve had all year long,” Cameron Boozer said.
Siena took its first lead at 12-10 and never trailed again in the opening half in taking the 43-32 lead, Doty was a handful and Folefac, who was averaging 11 points a game, had 13 in the half to match Cam Boozer’s 13.
The Blue Devils seemed out of sorts and were out of sync. They once called timeout to regroup in the first half, then followed with a bad pass and backcourt violation. So it went for Duke.
Another interesting dynamic was the crowd. With each Siena basket, the Saints’ support grew as basketball fans from TCU and Ohio State appeared to get behind the underdogs, urging them on as they attempted to grab a piece of NCAA history.
UMBC shocked Virginia in 2018 – the first No. 16 to win – and Fairleigh Dickson did the same to Purdue in 2023. It’s not an impossible dream anymore.
The momentum shifted early in the second half. Evans had a pair of transition slams for Duke after the Saints’ Mulvey and then Folefac tried rim-rattling dunks that missed.
With Duke in a zone, the Siena shots came up short. Nikolas Khamenia drained a 3 for Duke, Cayden Boozer scored on a drive and a Dame Sarr dunk trimmed the lead to two. Duke was on its way.
“It doesn’t matter what you win by or how pretty or any of that stuff,” Scheyer said. “It’s about getting it done, finding a way, and then learning and growing from it.
“You’ve got to show what you’re made of, and these guys really did that.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2026 at 5:00 PM.
