Duke didn’t have much issue making it to the Sweet 16.
The No. 1 Blue Devils ended the first half on a 12-0 run on the way to an easy 89-66 win over No. 9 Baylor in the second round of the NCAA tournament on Sunday.
Baylor cut Duke’s lead to 35-30 with 3:07 to go on a 3-pointer from Jalen Celestine. After that, Duke made sure the Bears didn’t have much of a shot the rest of the way.
Potential No. 1 overall NBA Draft pick Cooper Flagg had eight of Duke’s 12 points to close the half, including this alley-oop with less than a minute to go:
The dunk was an exclamation point on the half as Duke took a 47-30 lead into the break. The Blue Devils simply maintained their advantage throughout the second half as Baylor never cut the lead to single digits thanks to the continued excellence of Tyrese Proctor.
Proctor had his best game of the season on Sunday with 25 points on 9-of-10 shooting. Proctor was 7-of-8 from behind the arc after he had 19 points and was 6-of-8 from the 3-point line in Duke’s opening-round win over Mount St. Mary’s.
With the help of Proctor’s hot night, Duke shot over 64% from the field and had the best offensive performance of the tournament in nearly a decade.
Duke scored 1.50 points per possession today vs Baylor, the highest PPP posted by any team in an NCAA Tournament game since the 2016 National Semifinals, when Villanova scored 1.52 PPP in a 95-51 win over Oklahoma.
— Jared Berson (@JaredBerson) March 23, 2025
Flagg, who finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists, was in the game at the finish of the first half despite having two fouls. He picked up a cheap foul early in the game and got his second with just under seven minutes to go before the break. Duke head coach Jon Scheyer removed Flagg from the game, but unlike other coaches, didn’t want his star on the bench for the rest of the half.
Flagg returned to the game just two minutes later and Scheyer’s comfort playing him with two fouls was rewarded. More and more coaches have started playing players with two fouls for longer periods in the first half, but Scheyer’s decision was still a stark contrast to the way that Rick Pitino managed his players’ foul trouble in St. John’s upset loss to Arkansas on Saturday. Both Kadary Richmond and Simeon Wilcher picked up two fouls in the first half and played a combined 11 minutes.
It’s the second straight Sweet 16 appearance for Duke after the Blue Devils lost in the second round as a No. 5 seed in Scheyer’s first season in 2023. A year ago, Duke made the Elite Eight as a No. 4 seed before losing to ACC rival NC State.
This year, Duke is the favorite to win it all for good reason — especially if Proctor continues to light it up.
