Duke And Siena Put On Quite The Show Thursday Afternoon
And now, it’s on to Ohio State
GREENVILLE, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 19: Cameron Boozer #12 of the Duke Blue Devils blocks the shot of Francis Folefac #11 of the Siena Saints during the first round of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament held at Bon Secours Wellness Arena on March 19, 2026 in Greenville, South Carolina. (Photo by Jamie Sabau/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) | NCAA Photos via Getty Images First: Hats off to Siena for a magnificent effort. It would be hard to be more impressed with what that team did.
And second, hats off to Duke for getting things together after a disastrous first half to win, 71-65. This is about as high a compliment as we can give Siena after that first half: they played about as well as Miami did against SMU, because Miami was absolutely superb. Unlike Miami though, Siena had no reliable depth, and so Gerry McNamara had to go with his starting five the whole way.
And in the second half, that caught up to them. Siena just killed it in the first half, shooting 55% overall, 45% on threes, and outrebounding Duke, 18-13. By contrast, Duke shot 13% on threes (2-15) and 39% overall, and in comparison to the Saints, looked discombobulated.
That team looked nothing like the team we’ve seen all season. That changed in the second half. Duke scored 9 points between the 15:48 mark and the 14:52 mark, and cut the lead to 47-43 on a Cayden Boozer putback.