First: Hats off to Siena for a magnificent effort. It would be hard to be more impressed with what that team did. And second, hats off to Duke for getting things together after a disastrous first half to win, 71-65.
This is about as high a compliment as we can give Siena after that first half: they played about as well as Miami did against SMU, because Miami was absolutely superb.
Unlike Miami though, Siena had no reliable depth, and so Gerry McNamara had to go with his starting five the whole way.
And in the second half, that caught up to them.
Siena just killed it in the first half, shooting 55% overall, 45% on threes, and outrebounding Duke, 18-13.
By contrast, Duke shot 13% on threes (2-15) and 39% overall, and in comparison to the Saints, looked discombobulated. That team looked nothing like the team we’ve seen all season.
That changed in the second half.
Duke scored 9 points between the 15:48 mark and the 14:52 mark, and cut the lead to 47-43 on a Cayden Boozer putback.
Dame Sarr then cut it to 47-45 on a dunk, and by then, the tenor of the game had changed. Siena was still punching back, but with just the starters playing legs were getting weak.
The Saints went back up 58-52 on a Francis Folefac three, but Sarr hit a free throw, and then Cayden Boozer hit a three to cut the lead to two at 58-56.
Siena hit a three and then Cayden hit another layup to cut it back to three, and the hunt was well and truly on.
Isaiah Evans got a tip-in to cut the lead to 61-60, then Cameron Boozer tied it from the line.
And then Evans put Duke back in front, 63-61, for the first time since Duke lead 10-8.
As usual, Duke relied on Cameron Boozer, but increasingly, Cayden Boozer is becoming a huge factor. He hit a layup with 1:58 to play to put the Blue Devils up, 71-67.
And from there, it was basically game management: hang on to the ball, make free throws, avoid self-sabotage.
Duke did just about everything right other than Evans, Duke’s best free throw shooter, missing a free throw with 0:21 left,
And he rebounded his own miss, got back to the line, and got the same points in the end anyway.
Cameron Boozer tacked on a couple of free throws with 0:08 left, but at that point, it was a formality.
Siena showed immense heart and played a brilliant game, but they could have used a bench player or two. In the end, three Saints had 4 fouls, and another had 3. A lot of that was just being tired.
That team clearly came in believing it could win, and anyone who watched it couldn’t really argue. They made their case.
For Duke, the first half verged on disaster. At the half, Maliq Brown told CBS that the Blue Devils thought it would be a cakewalk, which is a good way to court a devastating loss. Hopefully, the lesson is learned.
Here’s another lesson anyone should take away from this game.
Remember the idiot we linked to recently who does hot takes on X and said that Cayden Boozer should be playing D-III ball because he wasn’t good enough to play at this level?
Well, in the last three games, if anyone still doubted him, the smaller Boozer brother proved his case, because that guy is an absolute winner.
In the last three games, Boozer has not just played well. He has made critical plays at critical times. He finished with 19 points here and 5 assists, and his late layup was just huge.
Like Cameron, he just understands how to win. You can teach a lot of things, but you can’t teach that. You don’t see freshmen like the Boozers very often.
Notes – Cameron Boozer played well, very well in spots, but he also had 5 of Duke’s 8 turnovers…he finished with 22 points and 13 rebounds…Evans had 10 rebounds and a bunch of gutty plays…five of his rebounds were offensive…Duke got to the line 21 times, converting 18…if Syracuse doesn’t go after McNamara, they’re nuts…and if they’re lucky, he’ll bring Gavin Doty with him…
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