RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Tyrese Proctor had 19 points and freshman star Cooper Flagg returned from an ankle injury as No. 1 seed Duke beat Mount St. Mary’s 93-49 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on Friday.
Flagg had 14 points and seven boards for the Blue Devils (32-3), the East bracket headliner opening a push for a sixth national title roughly a half-hour’s drive from its Durham campus. Duke jumped to a 13-2 lead in a dominant first half marked by clean execution on the way to a big lead.
The Blue Devils cooled after the break, but finished at 50 percent shooting with 14 3-pointers to cruise toward a second-round date with Baylor. Proctor went 6 for 8 from deep.
The 18-year-old Flagg — a top NBA prospect and unanimous Associated Press first-team All-American — missed the last two games of Duke’s run to the Atlantic Coast Conference Tournament title after rolling his left ankle in the quarterfinals against Georgia Tech. He looked comfortable in this one, including when he finished an and-1 drive that left him on his back in the opening flurry and later when he cut backdoor to take Patrick Ngongba’s feed and dunk it home.
Duke led 54-28 by halftime after shooting 60.6 percent while committing just one turnover.
Arlandus Keyes scored 15 points for the 16th-seeded Mountaineers (23-13), the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champs who beat American in Wednesday’s First Four. Mount St. Mary’s shot 30.2 percent from the field, including 5 for 27 on 3s.
Takeaways
Mount St. Mary’s: This was the Mountaineers’ seventh trip to March Madness, the first six coming as a member of the Northeast Conference. They fell to 0-5 in the first round, all against No. 1 seeds — including one in this building exactly 17 years ago against another nearby ACC school (North Carolina). This was the program’s first NCAA trip since the Indianapolis-bubbled 2021 tournament during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Duke: The Blue Devils won the ACC outright regular-season and tournament titles for the first time since 2006, though Flagg’s health (and an injury to versatile defender Maliq Brown) was the major storyline. This was a good start to the NCAAs for a team that has lost just once since November.
Up next
Sunday’s game against the ninth-seeded Bears marks a reunion with former Duke guard Jeremy Roach, who transferred to Baylor after last season.
Story by Aaron Beard, AP Basketball Writer
