Bear Slayers: Duke Shuts Down Baylor, 89-66 And Heads To The 2025 Sweet 16!
As the Blue Devils continue to roll
For much of the first half, this was a competitive game before Duke’s size and foul trouble for Norchad Omier spelled doom for Baylor as the Blue Devils sent them back to Waco, 89-66.
First thing we want to say here is how much it sucks to have to be the team that ends Jeremy Roach’s career. He was a wonderful player for four seasons at Duke and we wish he could keep playing and not end his career losing to the Blue Devils. Baylor is lucky to have him and we’re luckier still to have watched him play and grow in Cameron. Couldn’t be prouder of him.
Baylor hung around until Omier picked up his third foul with 4:47 to play in the first half and the Bears down just 30-24. Duke pulled away quickly after that, with Proctor hitting a jumper to build an eight point lead at 35-27.
Jalen Celestine hit a three then Cooper Flagg then hit a two and a three to build a 10 point lead.
After Sion James split at the line, 6-10 Baylor freshman Marino Dubravcic (we were shocked to find out that guy is a freshman) wrestled Patrick Ngongba to the ground and earned a flagrant. Ngongba hit his freebies and Flagg got a dunk right after that to give Duke a 15 point lead with less than a minute in the half. Caleb Foster tacked on a shot with :06 left to give the Blue Devils a 47-30 lead at the half and the game, for all intents, was over. Baylor is a really good team but with limited size and Omier in trouble, the odds of a massive comeback were slim.
The second half was more of the same, and as we have seen lately, Tyrese Proctor is on a major heater. In the NCAA Tournament so far, he’s hit 13-16 from behind the line. Go back to the Louisville game in the ACC Championship, and he’s 19-30.
We don’t know if he can keep shooting like that, but good Lord that’s amazing.
Overall, Duke shot 54.5 percent from behind the line and 64.4 percent overall. Only Flagg and James shot less than 50 percent and Duke again took good care of the ball with just five turnovers, and the last was intentional as they let the shot clock expire at the end, so basically four.
Proctor finished with 25 points while Flagg had 18 and Knueppel 12. Flagg wasn’t too far off a triple double with nine rebounds and six assists.
One of the nicer things in the late part of the season has been the dramatic improvement we’ve seen with Ngongba and Foster. Quite honestly, we thought that Ngongba might redshirt, given that it took him a while to shake off his high school foot injury. Obviously that didn’t happen and what we see now is a wicked smart big man who can shoot, rebound, pass and defend. We’re not saying Duke doesn’t miss Maliq Brown because no one has that guy’s skill set. As it turns out though, Ngongba has a pretty solid set himself.
As for Foster, there was a point in the season where it looked like he might disappear entirely. He kept his head down though and today he was the first guy off the bench and made valuable contributions. Like Ngongba, he was getting over an injury this season - he had foot surgery after last year - and that might have been an issue. He’s re-emerged as an incredibly valuable player.
With the win, Duke moves to 33-3 on the season and on to the Sweet Sixteen, where it will face the winner of BYU-Arizona. The Blue Devils also get another signicant rest period. No one is talking about Flagg’s ankle injury at this point, but we’re guessing he’s probably still getting some kind of treatment/therapy, so every day helps. And if Brown is ready to go that would be a huge break for Duke too. We’ll have more later.
Notes - Watching Roach get emotional at the end was heartbreaking...it’s awful that Duke had to send him out....Maluach was somewhat quiet for much of this game but he did have two intimidating blocks...Ngongba had a pair of his own...Flagg had one as well...Isaiah Evans played but did not score...VJ Edgecombe had 16 points and six rebounds and you can see why he’s expected to go high in the NBA draft...super talented...Duke held Robert Wright to 3-14 and Roach to 3-10...overall Baylor shot just 32 percent for threes and 36.8 percent overall...Duke was 19-23 from the line to Baylor’s 8-10...the great thing about Baylor is that Scott Drew has integrity...we didn’t want to lose obviously but if you lose to a guy who is both honest and humble, well, there are worse ways to go out...