Proctor, Flagg help No. 1 seed Duke roll past Baylor 89-66 to reach Sweet 16 of March Madness

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tyrese Proctor made seven 3-pointers and scored 25 points to continue his recent tear, helping No. 1 seed Duke beat Baylor 89-66 on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Freshman star Cooper Flagg had 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Blue Devils (33-3), the headliner in the East Region and one of the favorites to win it all. They will face either Oregon or Arizona in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Newark, New Jersey.

Proctor, a junior, made 7 of 8 3-pointers — his third straight game with at least six 3s and an abrupt turnaround after going 0 for 10 in his first two Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament games. He made 9 of 10 shots overall Sunday.

Duke shot 64.4%, hit 12 3-pointers and turned it over just six times.

Freshman V.J. Edgecombe scored 16 points for the ninth-seeded Bears (20-15), who haven’t reached the tournament’s second weekend since Scott Drew’s team won it all in the Indianapolis bubble in 2021.

Duke took over in the 7 1/2 minutes before halftime, outscoring Baylor 24-6 with clean offensive execution while also holding up better against the Bears' relentless work on the offensive glass that upped the physicality of the game. That included Flagg sporting a red, puffy right eyelid and teammate Mason Gillis picking up a bright red scratch stretching from the right side of his neck around toward his throat.

Duke led 47-30 at the half, and Baylor got no closer than 13 points afterward. The Bears shot 36.8%.

Takeaways

Baylor: The Bears opened the tournament by holding off eighth-seeded Mississippi State on Friday, setting up a reunion between guard Jeremy Roach and his former Duke program. But Baylor was ousted in the second round for the fourth straight year.

Duke: The Blue Devils were playing about a half-hour’s drive from their Durham campus, though the building had been the site of some unusual struggles. Duke had lost seven of 11 games at Lenovo Center entering the tournament, six coming in trips to Atlantic Coast Conference neighbor N.C. State and the other a first-round March Madness loss to 14-seed Mercer in 2014. But Duke cruised right along this time, starting with Friday’s win against 16-seed Mount St. Mary’s, as Flagg had a smooth return from an ankle injury.

___

AP March Madness bracket: https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-mens-bracket and coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here.