RALEIGH, N.C. — It looked too easy on paper, and it proved to be exactly that on the hardwood.
No. 1 seeded Duke dismantled No. 16 seeded Mount St. Mary’s, 93-49, in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round game at Lenovo Center.
For the Blue Devils (32-3), this served merely as a glorified practice, a scrimmage, a warm-up for their star freshman forward Cooper Flagg to test out his sprained left ankle and gain some confidence in it as Duke prepares to go deep into the tournament against more formidable opponents.
Duke’s victory earned it a second-round matchup against Baylor, which outlasted Mississippi State in a 75-72 rock fight before the Blue Devils took the same court in the second game of the afternoon doubleheader.
Baylor, a No. 9 seed with a 20-14 record, entered the NCAA Tournament having lost six of its previous 10 games.
Mount St. Mary’s, which defeated Iona in its conference final last weekend and made it through the First Four in Dayton with a win over American, never had a chance Friday.
Duke led 13-2 three minutes in after a Tyrese Proctor 3-pointer.
Duke took a 22-6 lead with 12:19 remaining in the first half on a Flagg dunk.
The lead ballooned to 28-12 with 9:52 remaining in the first on a Flagg layup.
When Proctor buried a trey with 7:01 remaining, it was 38-18 Duke.
A Sion James 3-pointer with 4:59 remaining in the first made it 44-22.
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A Caleb Foster free throw with 2:05 remaining in the first gave Duke its largest lead of the half — 27 points, at 51-24.
The pregame betting line had Duke favored by 32 ½.
With two minutes remaining in the first half, the Blue Devils led by 27 and appeared on their way to covering the spread by the intermission.
It actually felt like a bit much, overkill if you will, when Duke’s Patrick Ngongba scored on a tip-in at the buzzer to close the first half, which ended at Blue Devils 54, Homecoming Opponent 28.
Duke, of course, would continue to pour it on in the second half.
Duke led 84-46 with 3:44 remaining when its coach, Jon Scheyer, emptied the bench in a timeout.
Flagg scored 14 points on 6 of 12 shooting and had seven rebounds.
More importantly, he looked sound and strong playing on that left ankle, which he sprained in the ACC Tournament last week and missed the final two games of it.
Proctor led Duke with 19 points on 6 of 8 shooting from 3-point range.
Khaman Maluach had 11 points, and Foster scored 12 off the bench.
