maliq brown watched from afar as Siena, in green and gold, carried a retired No. 4 jersey back onto the sport’s biggest stage and pushed No. 1 overall seed Duke to the edge in Greenville, S. C. For much of that Thursday afternoon, Siena looked like a team writing a Cinderella chapter—until the last stretch took it away.
What happened in Siena’s near-upset of Duke?
Siena built a 13-point second-half lead, then saw Duke close with a 16-4 run to win 71-65. The Saints had controlled long portions of the game: big threes fell, confidence climbed, and a plan aimed at slowing Cameron Boozer was working. Duke, unbeaten in all but two games, later acknowledged it entered thinking Siena would be a “cakewalk. ”
One late sequence captured how thin the margin can be. Siena inbounded underneath its basket with eight seconds on the shot clock. Point guard Justice Shoats fed center Riley Mulvey in the corner; Mulvey pitched it back and rolled to the rim. Duke’s defense froze, and Shoats floated a pass over the top. It looked like an uncontested dunk that would have pushed the lead to 15 points. Instead, the ball rattled off both sides of the rim and bounced out.
Mulvey recovered, and Francis Folefac attacked for another emphatic finish. That attempt clanged off the iron and ricocheted into open space. Duke’s Isaiah Evans grabbed it, blew past Shoats, and dunked at the other end—an abrupt reversal that fed the run that followed.
How did a retired No. 4 connect two Siena eras?
The number on the jersey carried its own history. Siena great Marc Brown—Siena’s career scoring leader and now a coach at New Jersey City University—gave his blessing before the season for sophomore guard Gavin Doty to wear Brown’s retired No. 4, which had been retired in 2010. Doty had worn No. 14 as a freshman and wanted his high school number.
Against Duke, Doty treated the number like a responsibility. He scored 21 points and played all 40 minutes, even after hurting his ankle in one collision and a finger when he ran into the scorer’s table. Siena coach Gerry McNamara leaned heavily on his top players: four starters played the full 40 minutes, and senior forward Brendan Coyle sat for only two seconds.
Brown saw the strain and the pride at the same time. “I thought it was great until they got a little tired, ” Brown said. “Would’ve been a big one, boy. ” Watching McNamara’s tight rotation, Brown added, “I’ve never seen it in my entire career. ”
The night still carried a milestone. With 21 points, Doty passed Brown for the most points by a player in the first two years of a Siena career: Doty reached 991 points, surpassing Brown’s 979 from 1987 to 1989, though Doty did it in 67 games compared with Brown’s 59. Brown’s response was simple—approval without ownership. “Good for him, man, ” Brown said. “Good for him. ”
What does this game reveal about today’s college basketball pressures?
The near-upset lived at the intersection of effort, endurance, and the modern realities that shape roster continuity. Doty said he opted against entering the NCAA transfer portal after his freshman season and returned this year. Asked about the portal, Doty said, “I wouldn’t even think about (the portal), really. I plan on playing for G-Mac through my whole career. ” He added that his goal is the NBA, and that decisions about what is best for the future would be discussed with coaches, himself, and the team.
Money sits inside that conversation, even when it is not the headline during a tight game. Doty receives an undisclosed amount of money from Siena, which provides more than $500, 000 in revenue sharing to its athletes, mostly for men’s basketball. Doty publicly thanked booster Adam Weitsman, a scrap-metal businessman who confirmed he funds Doty.
Brown, speaking as someone from a different era, did not romanticize the past. He acknowledged he might not have stayed at Siena his entire career if the portal and name, image and likeness money had existed then—especially after he scored 32 points in Siena’s NCAA Tournament win over Stanford. “Probably not, to be completely honest with you, ” Brown said. “With the money they’re throwing around right now, I seriously doubt it, but timing is everything, like my Dad always says. ”
In that sense, the Duke game was more than a scoreline. It was a live demonstration of what a program can build when players stay, and how quickly fatigue and a few bounces can punish the thinnest margins—particularly when a team plays its starters nearly every second of a high-stakes matchup.
What happens next after the missed chance—and what stays with Siena?
Doty and Brown had talked on the phone, but met in person for the first time in Atlantic City when Siena beat Merrimack in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship game. Brown said of Doty, “He did a great job. He seems like a nice young man. I’m glad I gave him that blessing (to wear No. 4) and it worked out for him. ”
Doty, asked if he lived up to the No. 4 this season, framed it as a full-body commitment rather than a brand: “I mean, I hope so, ” he said. “I gave it everything I had every second I was out there. You know, we brought home a championship, and I said that’s what we were going to do, so I’m so grateful to be part of this team. ”
There are open questions Siena cannot answer with one performance. Doty’s long-term future is uncertain, and it was noted that his future might be tied to McNamara, who has been mentioned as a candidate for the Syracuse job. Doty is from Fulton, a Syracuse suburb. For now, what is certain is the emotional imprint of the almost-upset: the double-digit lead, the physical toll, and the possessions where history seemed inches away.
Back in Greenville, the moment that lingers is the one Siena drew up cleanly—the roll to the rim, the lob, the almost-dunk—before the rim refused. It is in that narrow space that maliq brown and a new No. 4 can both recognize the same truth: legends are built on execution, but they are also shaped by what the ball decides to do in the air.
