Jon Scheyer and the No. 1 overall seed Duke Blue Devils made history in their first-round matchup against the No. 16 seed Siena Saints on Thursday. Duke outlasted Siena 71-65 in a game that was a lot more frantic and exciting than the two total lead changes would indicate.
The Saints took control early and dominated the Blue Devils the rest of the first half, taking a 43-32 lead into halftime. Duke was eventually led to victory by the Boozer brothers, with Cameron adding a team-high 22 points and 13 rebounds to go along with Cayden's 19 points and team-high five assists. Siena notably relied on all five of their starters the entirety of the game, not making a single substitution.
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Duke played three straight games in the ACC Tournament, and the first-round matchup against Sienna was a wakeup call. A No. 1 seed has only lost to a No. 16 seed twice in tournament history; first when the Virginia Cavaliers lost to the UMBC Retrievers 74-54 in 2018, and again in 2023 when the Fairleigh Dickinson Knights beat the Purdue Boilermakers 63-58. Although Scheyer and his squad narrowly avoided the fate of previous No. 1 seeds who lost their first-round matchup, they still set a record for futility by a No. 1 seed in their opening round game.
Even in victory, the Blue Devils' performance was historically bad for a No. 1 seed, with the halftime deficit of 11 points setting an NCAA Tournament record. Never in the history of the NCAA Tournament has a No. 1 seed trailed a No. 16 seed by double-digits at halftime, that is, until Duke did on Thursday.
ESPN Insider Jeff Borzello posted on X, "Eye-opening stat: Duke is the FIRST-EVER 1-seed to trail a 16-seed by double-digits at halftime in NCAA tournament history, per ESPN Research."
Duke will look to rebound from the tough performance when they face the No. 9 seed TCU Horned Frogs on Saturday at the Bon Secours Wellness Arena in Greenville, South Carolina.
