Duke Advances, Tops Siena

Thursday, March 19

Greenville, S.C.

Approx. 2:50 p.m.

Duke University

33-2,17-1ACC

Siena

23-12,13-7MAAC

Siena

Duke

3/19/2026 5:03:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)Duke Quotes (PDF)Postgame Notes (PDF)

GREENVILLE, S.C. – An 11-0 run within the final eight minutes of the contest brought back No. 1-seed Duke for a 71-65 victory against No. 16-seed Siena on Thursday. The Saints were held without a point for 6:47 after leading by 13 early in the second half.

The Blue Devils received a career-high 19 points from Cayden Boozer and Cameron Boozer's 20th double-double of the season to help power the comeback. Isaiah Evans tallied his first career double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Blue Devil defense held the Saints to 8-of-34 shooting (23.5 percent) in the second half and out-rebounded Siena 30-13 after intermission.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Duke won the opening tip and quickly scored the game's first points, with Cayden Boozer lobbing an alley-oop to Maliq Brown. The teams traded triples, with Cameron Boozer and Isaiah Evans connecting from beyond the arc for the Blue Devils.
Siena took its first lead, 12-10, with a fast-break layup shortly before the first media timeout of the contest. Back-to-back three-pointers by Siena put the Saints in front by six, 22-16, leading to a Duke timeout with 11:29 on the clock.
A dunk by Brown snapped a Duke stretch of over seven minutes with a field goal and ended a 10-point scoring run by the Saints. Siena continued to maintain its lead, 35-26, at the final media timeout of the first half and entered halftime with an 11-point edge, 43-32.
Two dunks from Evans helped spark Duke, as the Blue Devils cut the deficit to single-digits, 47-38, with 16:32 on the clock. A three-pointer from Nikolas Khamenia out of the under-16 break made it a six-point game and Cayden Boozer laid in a fast-break layup, forcing a Siena timeout at the 14:51 mark.
Duke's scoring run reached 11 straight after a Sarr slam and Evans made a three-pointer to inch Duke closer, 53-52, with just over 11 minutes remaining. Siena scored five quick points, taking a two-possession lead, and the Saints remained in front by a single point, 61-60, at the under-eight timeout.
The Blue Devils knotted the score at 61-61 with a Cameron Boozer free throw at the 5:08 mark and took the lead with a layup by Evans at 4:25.
Cameron Boozer and Cayden Boozer helped push the Duke lead to 67-61 with two free throws by Cameron and a layup by Cayden at the 1:36 mark.
Siena broke its scoreless drought with 1:06 remaining with a layup to make it a 67-63 contest, but two Evans free throws and two from Cameron Boozer put the game away.

NOTES

Duke earned its 127th win in the NCAA Tournament, the third-most by any team in the history of the event.
- The Blue Devils improved their overall NCAA Tournament record to 127-42 (.751), marking the highest winning percentage in tournament history by a team with a minimum of 20 games played.
- The Blue Devils improved to 34-3 (.919) when playing in the first round, 59-11 when playing as a No. 1-seed and 16-0 when playing a No. 16-seed.
Across the last two seasons, Duke owns the best record in Division I college basketball, at 68-6 (.919).
- Since Thanksgiving 2024, the Blue Devils have achieved a record of 64-4 (.941).
Duke increased its current winning streak to 12 games, its longest stretch without a loss this season.
Thursday marked the second meeting between the two teams, with Duke now 2-0 against the Saints.
- The Blue Devils had previously defeated Siena, 92-74, on Nov. 13, 2015, in Durham, N.C.
The Blue Devils are 10-1 when playing on March 19, with all of those games being played in the NCAA Tournament.
Saturday's game was Duke's 300th played when ranked No. 1 in the country, ahead of UCLA's 257 for the best total all-time (since 1949).
- Duke is 258-42 when ranked No. 1 in the country.
- Since 1998, the Blue Devils have played 198 games as the top-ranked team, more than twice as many as the next best tally (84 by North Carolina), with a record of 168-30 in those contests.
Duke trailed by 11 points at halftime, 43-32.
- Siena built a lead as large as 13 points, the largest deficit that Duke has faced all season.
- With the second-half comeback, the Blue Devils moved to 6-0 this season when trailing after 20 minutes.
- The Blue Devils' rally after trailing by double figures at halftime was the second instance of a Duke team coming back from a double-digit deficit in the NCAA Tournament, joining the 2001 Final Four victory over Maryland where Duke trailed by 11, 49-38, at halftime.
- The Blue Devils became the fourth ACC team to come back from a double-digit halftime deficit in the NCAA Tournament Round of 64.
Duke entered Thursday with the third-best average point differential in the second half this season (+8.9) and outscored Siena by 17 in the second frame.
The Saints entered Thursday's game averaging 70.5 points per game, but were held to 65, 5.5 points below their season average.
- Duke's defense has held all but two of its 35 opponents below their scoring average this season.
- After allowing the Saints to score 43 points in the first half, Duke's defense held Siena to just 22 second-half points – matching the lowest second-half total by a Duke opponent all season (Boston College, Feb. 3).
Entering Thursday, Duke ranked fifth nationally for rebounding margin (+10.9).
- The Blue Devils outrebounded the Saints by 12 (43-31) and have finished with a positive margin on the glass in 31 games this season.
- Duke has finished with a double-digit edge on the glass in six consecutive games and a total of 21 times this season.
- Duke grabbed 16 offensive rebounds, tied with two other games for its most in an NCAA Tournament game over the last 15 years.
- The Blue Devils outrebounded the Saints 30-13 after intermission.
Siena began the NCAA Tournament with the 15th-best scoring defense (65.7) in the country.
- Duke outpaced that average, finishing with 71 points.
The Blue Devils committed a total of 10 fouls. Duke has a record of 70-3 (.959) when committing 15 or fewer fouls under Scheyer.
Duke registered two scoring runs of at least 10 unanswered points. The Blue Devils increased their season total for kill shots to 38.
Cameron Boozer scored 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, his 20th double-double of the season and 13th with at least 20 points.
- Boozer is the sixth Duke player in the last 40 years with a double-double in his NCAA Tournament debut and is the third Duke player in the last 60 years with at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in his NCAA Tournament debut.
- The freshman also dished three assists and became the second Duke player with at least 22 points, 13 rebounds and three assists in his NCAA Tournament debut since assists became official in 1983-84.
- Boozer shot 13-of-14 (.929) from the free-throw line, the most made free throws by a Duke player this season and the second-most by a Blue Devil in the NCAA Tournament, behind Grayson Allen's 15 free throws made versus UNC Wilmington on March 17, 2016.
Cayden Boozer posted a career-high 19 points and dished five assists alongside zero turnovers.
- The freshman is the fourth Duke player with at least 15 points and five assists in his NCAA Tournament debut since assists were officially tracked in 1983-84.
- Boozer has reached double-digits in each of his last three games, his longest streak of the season, averaging 17.0 points per contest during that stretch.
Cameron and Cayden Boozer combined to score at least 15 points each for the second time this season, joining Duke's win over Clemson in the ACC Tournament semifinal.
Isaiah Evans tallied the first double-double of his career, scoring 16 points and reeling in 10 boards.

QUOTES

"They (Siena) played at such a high level. You're down double-digits in the second half, and the toughness that these guys showed. Cayden throughout the whole game, what he did - 19 (points), five (assists), and zero turnovers. Isaiah has a double-double. Cam has a double-double. I think these guys have showed over and over again what they're about. Today was no exception. It doesn't matter what you win by or how pretty or any of that stuff. It's about getting it done, finding a way, and then learning and growing from it. I'm really proud. Credit to Siena just for their readiness and the way that those guys played. They did a great job." - Duke head coach Jon Scheyer
"I felt like that whole second half we just had the right mindset, we had the right energy that second half. Obviously you've got to give Siena a lot of credit, they played way harder than us in the first half. We had to just regroup, understand that we only have 20 minutes guaranteed. So, we all had that understanding, and we made sure that we all had the right energy in the second half." - Duke freshman guard Cayden Boozer

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