Duke hangs on, survives 16-seed Siena
GREENVILLE, S.C. – Survive-and-advance mentality applies to every game in the NCAA Tournament.
Duke learned that lesson Thursday and gets to play again.
The top-seeded Blue Devils held on for a 71-65 win against 16-seed Siena in the first round at Bon Secours Wellness Arena.
Duke (33-2) will play 9-seed TCU in the second round on Saturday (time TBD). The Horned Frogs (23-11) held on for a 66-64 win against Ohio State in Thursday’s first game in Greenville.
That wasn’t anywhere close to being a given.
Siena (23-12) led for the majority of this game. Duke scored on its first four possessions and then went 9½ minutes without a field goal. That allowed the Saints to build a 10-point lead and introduce a serious possibility they could be the third 16-seed to knock off a No. 1 seed.
This was the first time since a Jan. 10 win against SMU that Duke trailed by double digits.
A kill shot by Duke in a three-minute span early in the second half set the stage for a tight last few minutes. The Blue Devils’ 11-0 run made it a 47-45 deficit.
Duke didn’t regain the lead, though, until an Isaiah Evans runner with 4:26 left.
That came in the middle of another 11-0 run by the Blue Devils, taking a 61-56 deficit to a 67-61 lead. It was never a one-possession game after that.
Siena sent some shockwaves through college basketball in the first half and into the second. The Saints led 22-16 after 8½ minutes, having made four of their first five 3-pointers. Brendan Coyle hit back-to-back 3s, triggering an early Jon Scheyer timeout.
It got worse for Duke.
The Saints scored 1.39 points per possession in the first half. Between the scrambling of Duke’s defense and the Saints building confidence, the last few minutes of the first half brought the unthinkable into focus.
Siena took an 11-point lead into halftime — along with an 18-13 rebounding advantage, a 22-16 lead in points in the paint and all the confidence in Greenville.
That was only the sixth time this season Duke has trailed at halftime and it was the largest deficit.
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