NCAA Tournament roundup: Duke rolls past Baylor; Maryland beats Colorado St. at buzzer

RALEIGH, N.C. — Tyrese Proctor couldn’t miss. And top-seeded Duke showed the toughness to push back when pushed.

Proctor had career highs of seven 3-pointers and 25 points to continue his recent tear, helping Duke beat Baylor, 89-66, on Sunday in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

Freshman star Cooper Flagg had 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists for the Blue Devils (33-3), the East Region headliners who faced little drama in two home-state wins to secure a spot in the Sweet 16.

“For us to win by this margin, I think this speaks to the level of killer instinct that our guys have, the competitiveness and the connectivity,” coach Jon Scheyer said.

Duke will face Oregon or Arizona in the Sweet 16 on Thursday in Newark, N.J.

Proctor, a junior, made 7 of 8 3-pointers, his third straight game with at least six 3s and an abrupt turnaround after going 0 for 10 in his first two ACC Tournament games. He made 9 of 10 shots overall Sunday.

“I think it’s just my preparation, just behind the scenes putting in the work and trusting myself,” Proctor said.

Duke shot 64.4% to set a program record for a tournament game, hit 12 3-pointers and turned it over just six times.

“You look at it, and the analytics showed they didn’t have any weaknesses,” Baylor coach Scott Drew said, adding: “They’re blessed because they have size and length and skill.”

Freshman V.J. Edgecombe scored 16 points for the ninth-seeded Bears (20-15), who haven’t reached the tournament’s second weekend since Drew’s team won it all in the Indianapolis bubble in 2021.

Alabama 80, Saint Mary’s 66 — Alabama thundered past Saint Mary’s, using a steady stream of alley-oop dunks to reach the Sweet 16 for a third consecutive year.

Chris Youngblood led the second-seeded Crimson Tide (27-8) with 13 points. Six players finished in double figures for Alabama, including forward Grant Nelson, who had 12 points and eight rebounds after sitting out the majority of a first-round game against Robert Morris due to a knee injury.

All-American guard Mark Sears had 12 points and three assists, including a pretty lob that Clifford Omoruyi slammed through for a reverse dunk that put the Tide up 14 with just under 8 minutes to play.

Omoruyi had 10 points and 10 rebounds for the Crimson Tide, who built a double-digit lead late in the first half and never let the Gaels (29-6) get closer than eight the rest of the way.

Alabama will play sixth-seeded BYU in the East Regional semifinals in Newark, N.J., on Thursday.

West Region

Maryland 72, Colorado State 71 — Derik Queen banked in a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer, and Maryland advanced to the Sweet 16 in a thriller.

Jalen Lake drilled a rainbow 3-pointer with 6 seconds left for No. 12 seed Colorado State, which was seeking to become the lowest-seeded team to advance to a regional semifinal in this edition of March Madness, which had been light on upsets or buzzer-beaters.

Queen took care of that.

Maryland coach Kevin Willard called timeout with 3.6 seconds left and got the ball to Queen, the 6-foot-10 freshman center from Baltimore, who drove to his left, elevated over two defenders and kissed it off the glass as the horn sounded. The Terrapins advanced to face the West Region’s No. 1 seed, Florida, in San Francisco.

Queen led fourth-seeded Maryland (27-8) with 17 points, Rodney Rice scored 16 and Julian Reese had 15 points and 11 rebounds as each of Maryland’s starters known as the “Crab Five” scored in double figures. Maryland’s bench totaled two points.

Nique Clifford scored 21 points for Colorado State (26-10) and Lake had 13.

Midwest Region

Kentucky 84, Illinois 75 — Koby Brea matched a career high with 23 points, and Kentucky advanced beyond the NCAA Tournament’s opening weekend for the first time since they reached the Elite Eight in 2019.

Kentucky (24-11), the No. 3 seed, faces No. 2 seed and SEC rival Tennessee on Friday in Indianapolis. The Wildcats already have beaten the Volunteers twice this season.

Mark Pope, who never won an NCAA Tournament game in five seasons at BYU, broke through in his first season at Kentucky. Pope, a forward on Kentucky’s 1996 national championship team, took over when John Calipari left for Arkansas in the wake of a first-round loss to Oakland last year.

Now Pope and Calipari are in the Sweet 16. Calipari got there when Arkansas upset St. John’s, 75-66, in the West Region on Saturday.

Brea, a fifth-year senior who spent his first four seasons at Dayton, shot 10 of 16 from the floor and scored 10 straight Kentucky points during one second-half stretch. Otega Oweh had 15 points, and Lamont Butler added 14 for Kentucky.

Kylan Boswell scored 23 points, Tomislav Ivisic 19 and Kasparas Jakucionis 13 for the sixth-seeded Illini (22-13).