By AARON BEARD AP Basketball Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Tyrese Proctor couldn’t miss. And top-seeded Duke showed the toughness to push back when pushed.
Proctor had career highs of seven 3-pointers and 25 points to continue his recent tear, helping 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 East Region headliners who faced little drama in two home-state wins to secure a spot in the Sweet 16.
“For us to win by this margin, I think this speaks to the level of killer instinct that our guys have, the competitiveness and the connectivity,” coach Jon Scheyer said.
Duke 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.
“I think it’s just my preparation, just behind the scenes putting in the work and trusting myself,” Proctor said.
Duke shot 64.4% to set a program record for a tournament game, hit 12 3-pointers and turned it over just six times.
“You look at it and the analytics showed they didn’t have any weaknesses,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said, adding: “They’re blessed because they have size and length and skill.”
Freshman V.J. Edgecombe scored 16 points for the ninth-seeded Bears (20-15), who haven’t reached the tournament’s second weekend since 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 getting poked in the right eye and teammate Mason Gillis picking up a red scratch stretching from the right side of his neck around toward his throat during a rebounding scrum.
Duke led 47-30 at the half, and Baylor got no closer than 13 points afterward. The Bears shot 36.8% and hung around by taking an 18-3 edge in offensive rebounding, which gave them 23 more shots than Duke.
“If you go into a game and you say you’re going to outrebound somebody 18-3 on the offensive glass and only going to have five turnovers, you’d probably feel pretty good about that,” Drew said.
Takeaways
Baylor: The Bears opened the tournament by holding off eighth-seeded Mississippi State on Friday, but they were 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.
Hello again
The game marked a reunion between guard Jeremy Roach and his former Duke program. Roach played four seasons at Duke, including the Final Four run in Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski’s farewell season and Scheyer’s first two years as Coach K’s successor.
Roach had seven points and three rebounds Sunday.
Jawing
The game included a testy moment when Baylor reserve big man Marino Dubravcic was called for a flagrant-1 foul after hooking the right arm of Duke defender Patrick Ngongba, then dragging him to the court in a tangled pile.
As the 6-foot-10 Dubravcic got to his feet, he traded words with the 6-9 Flagg as the two loomed over official Brian O’Connell, who stood between them.
