Duke Blows Out Mount St. Mary’s In 2025 NCAA Opener, 93-49
A great all-round performance by the Blue Devils
It’s no surprise that Duke blew out Mount St. Mary’s by 44, 93-49, but what kind of got lost in that is that the Mountaineers are not a bad team.
We’re not saying they’re no Duke’s level - clearly they’re not - but they played smart basketball, they competed hard and played together. That was really good basketball. They just ran into a better team.
Duke just played really well. Cooper Flagg, in his first game back since his ankle injury in the ACC Tournament, played about 22 minutes, had 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists.
Tyrese Proctor had a superb game, hitting 6-8 for his three pointers and 6-9 overall. Khaman Maluach finished with 11 points and five rebounds in 16 minutes. He did however pick up three fouls.
Kon Knueppel had a quiet game with six points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Sion James had two points, both at the line.
The Blue Devils had a sharp boost from the bench. Patrick Ngongba had perhaps his best game at Duke with nine points, eight rebounds, three blocks, two assists and a steal.
One of those assists was a dazzling pass in traffic to a cutting Flagg that was just gorgeous.
Caleb Foster had 12 points on 4-5 shooting and 3-4 from behind the line.
That’s the offensive story and at times, Duke, collectively, was dazzling, with just brilliant passing and ball movement. How good was it?
The Blue Devils had 35 baskets, 21 assists and just two turnovers.
Defensively, Duke was dominant too. The Blue Devils held the Mountaineers to 18.5 percent on threes and 30.2 percent overall.
There was a lot of good stuff in this game, but the most impressive thing, to us, was how well the Blue Devils played together. The part that you can’t predict is the three point shooting: you can’t reasonably expect to have Proctor and Foster combine to hit 9-12 overall every night. On the other hand, Knueppel, Flagg, Evans, James and Gillis combined to hit 2-18 very often either, so hopefully that will balance out.
The ball movement though, the passing, was just exquisite.
As we said about UNC’s big win over San Diego State, you don’t get your best game again (UNC is currently proving that true against Ole Miss).
We admire Mount St. Mary’s, but Baylor is closer to Duke’s level and the talent is pretty high. VJ Edgecombe is the real deal. We know Norchad Omier from Miami and he’s a pain. Robert Wright looked great and the roster in general is really solid.
Odds are that game is going to be a grinder rather than a blowout and certainly much closer.
Anyway, as Jim Valvano used to say, survive and advance. On to Sunday!
- No. 1-seed Duke men’s basketball kicks off NCAA Tournament with strong 93-49 win against Mount St. Mary’s
- 5 halftime observations from Duke men’s basketball’s NCAA Tournament first round against Mount St. Mary’s
- Breaking down Duke’s dominant offensive unit and how it has grown this season
- Duke makes it look easy, putting the NCAA tournament field on notice
- Cooper Flagg looks just fine in injury return as Duke cruises to start March Madness
- March Madness: Cooper Flagg shows no signs of rust in commanding return as Duke dominates Mount Saint Mary’s
- Spreading the wealth: Top-seeded Duke uses whole bench in big win over Mount St. Mary’s
- Duke 93-49 Mount St. Mary’s (21 Mar, 2025) Box Score