Duke dominant: Top-seeded Blue Devils run away from No. 9 Baylor to reach NCAA Sweet 16
Even Cooper Flagg’s brief first-half respite after picking up two fouls couldn’t slow No. 1 Duke’s march to the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
With and without Flagg, the Blue Devils pulled away from Baylor to open a 17-point halftime lead on Sunday and roll to an 89-66 win over the No. 9 seed Bears in an East Region game at Lenovo Center.
The top seed in the East, Duke (33-3) advances to play Thursday night in the Sweet 16 round at Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, against No. 4 seed Arizona. The Wildcats beat No. 5 seed Oregon, 87-83 on Sunday night.
Flagg, the ACC player of the year and a consensus first-team all-American, scored 18 points, on an highly efficient performance. He needed only 11 field goal attempts, making five of them. He also grabbed nine rebounds and collected six assists.
In addition to Flagg’s strong day, Proctor led Duke with 25 points as he made seven 3-pointers, his third consecutive game with six or more 3-pointers.
Duke’s scoring burst over the final minutes of the first half, which 10 consecutive points to take the lead for good before scoring the half’s final 12 points, gave it a 47-30 halftime lead. Even though Baylor hit 8 of its first 16 shots after halftime, the Blue Devils still held a 68-51 lead after a Mason Gillis 3-pointer with 9:16 to play.
“For us to win by this margin, I think, speaks to the level of killer instinct that our guys have,” Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “The competitiveness, and the connectivity.”
Baylor (20-15) stayed with the Blue Devils for the game’s first 12 minutes, taking a 24-23 lead with 7:56 to play on Langston Love’s 3-pointer. But the Bears only made two more shots the rest of the half.
After giving Duke a 25-24 lead with two free throws, Flagg picked up his second foul and hit the Duke bench with 6:42 left until halftime. But instead of losing steam, the Blue Devils stifled the Bears and hit 65% of their shots in their best shooting first half of the season.
During a timeout, Gillis implored the Blue Devils to take advantage of this inflection point to separate from the Bears.
“We can let him back in it, or we can, we can slam the door shut,” Duke’s Kon Knueppel said in describing Gillis’ message. “And I’m glad we slammed the door shut today. But yeah, that’s key Mason. That’s stuff he says all the time. So its great to have him in the locker room.”
Flagg’s two free throws were part of a 10-0 Duke run that included a Proctor 3-pointer with the rest of the points coming from the free throw line.
Flagg returned to the game with 3:37 left in the half and Duke up 33-27.
At the 2:55 mark, he started what would be a 12-0 Duke run to end the half with a basket in the lane. His 3-pointer 41 seconds later gave Duke its first double-digit lead at 40-30.
With 1:13 left in the half, Duke’s Pat Ngongba and Baylor’s Marino Dubravcic tangled and fell hard to the court as they battled for a rebound on Baylor’s offensive end. A double foul was called but, after a replay review, Dubravcic received a Flagrant 1 foul for a hook-and-hold on Ngongba.
After Ngongba hit two free throws, Flagg grabbed a lob pass from Sion James and slammed home two points to cause the copious Duke fans in the building to erupt in cheers. Caleb Foster’s runner in the lane closed the half with Duke up, 47-30.
Kon Knueppel, who scored only three first-half points as he picked up two fouls before halftime, scored nine in the second half to finish with 12. His play was a big reason why Baylor never drew closer than 13 points after halftime.
Duke shot 64.4%, making 12 of 22 3-pointers (54.5%).
Baylor finished with a 36.8% shooting day as the Bears hit 8 of 24 3-pointers. VJ Edgecombe scored 16 points and Norchad Omier 15 for Baylor. Jeremy Roach, the former Duke guard who was a team captain the last two seasons, scored seven points on 3 of 10 shooting.
For Duke, this is its most wins in a season since the 2015 NCAA championship team finished 35-4. The only three Duke teams this century to have more wins than this season’s Blue Devils all won NCAA championships (2001, 2010, 2015).
This story was originally published March 23, 2025 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Duke dominant: Top-seeded Blue Devils run away from No. 9 Baylor to reach NCAA Sweet 16."