Duke Rallies Past No. 16 Siena Behind Cameron, Cayden Boozer, Fans React to Near March Madness Upset

Goliath survived, but boy did he wobble.

Top overall seed Duke overcame an 11-point halftime deficit to survive 16-seed Siena on Thursday in the first round of the NCAA men's tournament, winning 71-65.

It was a brotherly affair, as Duke was led by the duo of Cameron Boozer (22 points, 13 rebounds) and Cayden Boozer (19 points, five assists).

Gavin Doty paced with Siena with 21 points.

Still, nobody expected Siena to be in the game at all, let alone dominate the first half. Duke's narrow survival had fans and pundits buzzing after the contest while (mostly) praising the efforts of the Boozer twins:

Siena beating Duke in the first round of the NCAA tournament would have been the biggest upset in the history of college basketball. So the fact that the Saints took a 43-32 lead into halftime, aided by the Blue Devils shooting 2-for-15 from three in the first 20 minutes, was absolutely stunning.

Siena outplayed Duke by virtually ever metric in the first half. They out-rebounded them 18-13. They only had three turnovers and held a 10-6 advantage in assists. They shot 55 percent from the field and 45 percent from three, while Duke shot 39 percent from the field.

There was some context to consider. Duke was down two starters (Patrick Ngongba II and Caleb Foster), leaving them with a thin, seven-man rotation. Still, nobody expected them to struggle with Siena, which didn't use a single substitution until the final seconds of the second half.

Eventually, the Saints were simply too gassed to hang with the Blue Devils, but they put up an epic fight. For Duke, it was a wake-up call on a massive scale. Don't expect the Blue Devils to take any more opponents lightly.