Duke survived a massive scare from Siena to advance to the second round of the NCAA Tournament, after trailing by as much as 13 during the game before clawing back for the 71-65 victory on Thursday afternoon.

It looked as if the Saints were on the verge of pulling off the upset of the tournament after they went into halftime with a 43-32 lead and made Duke the first-ever No. 1 seed to trail a 16 seed by double digits at the half. 

Duke narrowly avoided joining Virginia and Purdue as the only No. 1 seeds to fall against a No. 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament. 

The Blue Devils now advance to face TCU in the second round.

“[Gerry McNamara], he outcoached me,” Duke head coach Jon Scheyer told CBS after the win. “They were more ready to play, and the readiness and the toughness by our guys, just to weather that storm in the second half, I’m proud of them. It’s great to get this win.

“I think there’s a lot that we can learn for moving forward.” 

It was Cameron Boozer who tied the game at 61 when he knocked down a free throw with 5:08 left in the game. 

Isaiah Evans scored on a driving layup after the Saints made a costly turnover to give Duke the lead, 63-61. 

Boozer hit another pair of free throws to extend the lead, and a layup by his twin brother, Cayden Boozer, put the Blue Devils up by six.

“It was a great game. Obviously, you have to give Siena a lot of credit,” Cayden Boozer said. “They played harder than us the first half. The whole halftime we were talking about we’re not going home. We’re going to do whatever we can to not go home. It was a battle. They did a great job and I’m just really proud of our guys for weathering the storm.”

Cameron Boozer finished the game with 22 points and 13 rebounds, and Cayden Boozer had 19 points. 

Gavin Doty had 21 points for the Saints.