It wasn't pretty, but No. 1 Duke survived a near-upset against No. 16 Siena this Thursday.
Siena guard Gavin Doty put on a show in the first half with his 3-point shooting. His performance is a big reason why the Saints had a 43-32 lead over the Blue Devils at halftime. That being said, Duke's key playmakers took over in the second half when their best was needed.
Cameron and Cayden Boozer combined for 41 points during Duke's 71-65 win over Siena. Isaiah Evans also came up big for Jon Scheyer's squad, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
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Even though Duke punched its ticket to the Round of 32, those who picked the ACC champions to win it all aren't feeling too good about their bracket.
"As expected Duke will pull this out but this is not a good look, you might be able to play bad basketball for a half against a 16 seed like Siena but you can't do that in Round of 32 or Sweet 16," one fan wrote on social media.
"Fantastic effort by Siena," another fan said. "Take a bow, Saints. Duke moving on, but has to be incredibly disappointed and shook up by this. Not a good sign for them moving forward."
"Duke may have pulled this game out, but they’re not very good and it should show that Boozer is not what everyone thinks he is," a social media user declared.
What went wrong for Duke?
Duke forward Maliq Brown told CBS reporter Tracy Wolfson that Siena wasn't viewed as a serious threat heading into this game. There's no question that led to a rough first-half effort.
"We thought it was going to be a cakewalk going into this game so now we know what it is so we just have to respond back," Brown said.
Make no mistake, Duke will need to play with a lot more urgency against No. 9 TCU on Saturday.
If not, Duke will find itself watching the Sweet 16 from the couch.
