RALEIGH, N.C. — It looked too easy on paper and proved to be exactly that on the hardwood.
No. 1 seeded Duke dismantled No. 16 seed Mount St. Mary’s, 93-49, in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round game at the Lenovo Center.
For the Blue Devils (32-3), this served merely as a glorified practice, scrimmage, a warmup 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 match-up 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.
“I’m proud of the performance,’’ Duke coach Jon Scheyer said. “I thought these guys were incredibly mature without necessarily even playing in the NCAA Tournament besides Tyrese [Proctor] and Mason [Gillis]. We have to move on very quickly, but really good to get our feet wet and understand what the tournament is all about.’’
It, too, was critical to get Flagg, who sprained his left ankle in last week’s ACC Tournament and missed the final two games, some playing time to assure him and the rest of the team that he’s good to go for the long haul this March.
“To get ‘Coop’ back was huge,’’ Scheyer said. “You don’t take any game for granted. It’s very easy to say, ‘Yeah, he should just rest.’ But you don’t take anything for granted. You’re not promised your next game.’’
Both Scheyer and Flagg said they had no doubt about him being recovered from the ankle injury.
“When we knew he was ready, he was going to go,’’ Scheyer said. “So, for me there wasn’t a question (of Flagg playing). I know for him there wasn’t a question. But at the same time, we weren’t going to risk anything either.
“We were ready for him to play more, but I think the way it worked out obviously was really good.’’
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Flagg scored 14 points on 6-of-12 shooting and had seven rebounds in 22 minutes.
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.
“I already felt completely 100 percent and confident going into tonight’s game,’’ Flagg said.
St. Mary’s, which defeated Iona in its MAAC tournament final last weekend and made it through the First Four in Dayton with a win over American, never stood a chance in the game.
Duke led 13-2 three minutes in after a 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.
A Caleb Foster free throw with 2:05 remaining in the first gave Duke its largest led of the half — 27 points, at 51-24.
The pre-game 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.
It led 84-46 with 3:44 remaining when Scheyer emptied the bench in a timeout.
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.
Duke had an incredible 21-2 assist-to-turnover ratio.
The Blue Devils outscored Mount St. Mary’s 41-18 in bench points, 16-4 in second-chance points and 17-4 in fast-break points.
Duke shot 50-percent from the field and 37.8-percent from 3-point range while Mount St. Mary’s shot 30.2 percent from the field and just 18.5 percent from long distance.
“I thought it was a workmanlike performance by our team,’’ Scheyer said.
“We didn’t take them lightly,’’ Flagg said. “We came out, and we executed, and we just jumped out to it.’’
