Duke Survives Siena Scare in NCAA Tournament

0:00On this March 19th in Durham, here's what is making headlines. In the opening round of the 2026 NCAA Tournament East Region, top-seated Duke survived a scare from number 16, Siena, winning. 71-65 at Bon Say Course, well in this arena. Siena Coach Jerry McNamara kept it simple with his team, just noting that upsets had happened before without naming past shocks. Siena jumped out to a stunning 43-32 halftime lead, fueled by Gavin Dodie's 16 first half points and Francis Fulfax. 13. The Saints shot lights out early, grabbing their first lead at 12-10 and never trailing in the half. The crowd turned electric, with neutral fans from other games rooting hard for the underdogs, as Siena chased the slice of history. No one saw this coming against the number one overall seed and top-ranked blue devils who looked out of sync early with turnovers and cold shooting. Duke flipped the script in the second half, switching to zone defense and pushing the pace in transition.

1:00Cameron Booser lead with 22 points. Kaden Booser added 19, and Isaiah Evans chipped in 16, helping them rally from way down. The blue devils, now 33 and 2, advanced to face number 9 TCU on Saturday, after the horned frog slipped past number 8 Ohio State. 66-64. D&N is sponsored by our partner. It is a pillow that plays your podcast and music without earbuds, built for listening in bed, S-O-L-I, solely pillow.com.