No. 21 Duke Surges Past No. 10 Baylor, 78-70

Wednesday, December 20

New York City

7 p.m.

Duke University

Baylor

Freshman guard Jared McCain celebrates during Duke's 78-70 win over Baylor.

No. 21 Duke Surges Past No. 10 Baylor, 78-70

12/20/2023 9:38:00 PM | Men's Basketball

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NEW YORK – All five starters scored in double-figures for No. 21 Duke (8-3) and the Blue Devils used a late 14-1 run to secure the 78-70 win over No. 10 Baylor (9-2) at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Jared McCain quickly got Duke on to the board, knocking down a mid-range jumper on the Blue Devils' first possession of the night. A three-pointer by Jeremy Roach and two free throws by McCain gave Duke the early lead, 7-3, just over two minutes into the game.
The Blue Devils took their first double-digit lead, 18-8, following a fast-break layup by Mark Mitchell at the 13:35 mark of the opening half. Duke remained ahead, 20-12, at the second media timeout of the half, behind a game-high nine points by McCain.
Baylor used a 9-0 scoring burst to draw within one, 26-25, with 5:34 remaining before half. The Bears took the lead, 28-26, with a three-pointer, but Roach answered with a floater to knot the score at the final media timeout of the opening frame.
McCain moved into double-figures, the first player to do so in the game, putting Duke back in front, 32-30. At the break, the Blue Devils remained ahead by the same margin, 34-32.
The two teams traded buckets out of the break, combining to score 11 points within the first three minutes of second-half action. Two free throws by Roach at the 16:28 mark pushed the senior in double-digits and Duke ahead, 40-39. Back-to-back three-pointers gave Baylor its largest lead of the game, 48-42, leading to a Duke timeout with 14 minutes remaining in the game.
Five consecutive possessions ended in made shots, before Kyle Filipowski was fouled on a three-pointer, triggering the under-12 media timeout with Baylor in the lead, 54-48.
McCain and Caleb Foster scored on back-to-back trips down the floor, putting Duke back in front, 55-54. The Blue Devils defense forced two straight turnovers and extended is scoring run to 9-0, claiming a 57-54 lead as the clock ticked under nine minutes.
The back-and-forth affair continued, with both squads trading baskets. Ryan Young reached 1,000 career points with a layup at the 5:35 mark, giving the Blue Devils a 63-61 edge. A step-back by Roach on the next possession was followed by a McCain three-pointer to establish a nine-point lead for the Blue Devils, 70-61.
The Duke run reached as large as 14-1 to help the Blue Devils secure the 78-70 victory.

NOTES

With the win, Duke improved to 2-0 all-time against Baylor. Both games were played on a neutral court – the previous meeting was in the 2010 NCAA Tournament in the Elite Eight, with Duke emerging with the 78-71 victory.
Wednesday night marked the 59th game at current Madison Square Garden for Duke. With the win, the Blue Devils moved to 41-18 in the venue. Duke has won seven straight and eight of its last nine at MSG.
At all NBA arenas, Duke has won 23 of its last 26 and moved to 2-0 this season and 96-33 all-time in NBA venues.
All five Duke starters scored in double-figures, marking the first time this season the Blue Devils had five players eclipse 10 points.
The win over No. 10 Baylor marked Duke's first win over an opponent ranked between No. 6-10 since defeating No. 10 Kentucky, 79-71, on Nov. 9, 2021, and first overall top-10 victory since defeating No. 1 Gonzaga, 84-81, on Nov. 26, 2021.
With the victory, head coach Jon Scheyer secured the first top-10 victory of his coaching career.
Duke held Baylor to 70 points, 18.4 below its scoring average of 88.4 points. The Blue Devils have now held each of their 11 opponents below their respective scoring average.
Freshman Jared McCain scored a game-high 21 points, matching his season-best point production and marking the second time in three games he has led the team in scoring. The Sacramento, California, native shot an efficient 7-of-11 (.636) from the field and connected on 3-of-6 (.500) from deep – his third straight game with at least three successful three-pointers. The Blue Devils are now 4-0 when he reaches that threshold.
Jeremy Roach scored 18 points, shooting 5-of-9 (.556) from the field. The senior guard also went 1-of-2 (.500) from beyond the arc and 7-of-8 from the foul line. Roach has now made a three-pointer in six consecutive games, matching the longest streak in his career.
Mark Mitchell scored 10 points, his seventh game of the season with at least 10 points and 23rd career double-digit performance. Duke is now 21-2 when Mitchell scores 10 or more.
Kyle Filipowski logged his fourth double-double of the season and second consecutive, scoring 13 points while adding 10 rebounds. The sophomore now has 20 career double-doubles in 47 games played.
Caleb Foster rounded out Duke's double-digit scoring, putting up 12 points while grabbing a career-high five boards.
Ryan Young's layup at 5:35 of the second half provided the team captain with his 1,000th career point. He added a pair of free throws and now sits at 1,002, including 258 points at Duke and 744 at Northwestern (2019-22).

QUOTES

"What an honor to play in [Madison Square Garden]. This has been a special place for us, especially to play right before Christmas... just seeing the crowd show up, and all the Duke fans in New York, what a special thing. For these guys, I know they love playing in it. It's great coaching in it. To play a team like Baylor, to get tested by a team who really had, coming in, a top-five offense in the country, best three-point shooting team, top-five offensive rebounding team, and a great culture. They've been a winning program. So, it's an honor for us to play them. I thought we were incredibly tough tonight. I'm not saying Baylor wasn't. I thought we were more mentally tough down the stretch, which is what this program has been about. I thought our defense throughout was pretty good. I mean, they're an explosive offensive team. They're going to score some points. I'm really proud of this game, proud of just the mental toughness that we've shown." - head coach Jon Scheyer
"It's definitely big to get a win. Obviously against Baylor, they're a great team. But we just wanted to kind of prove to ourselves that we can do it. Obviously, we had three tough losses early in the season and I felt like I didn't kind of set the tone. I wasn't leading the right way. I wasn't doing what I needed to do. Just forget the offense. Forget everything. Just me leading and my presence there, like coach said, has been a big thing." - senior Jeremy Roach
"There's really no words to describe it (playing in Madison Square Garden). I mean, I'm in New York, at Christmas time. Going to see the Rockefeller tree tomorrow. I'm excited. This is just a surreal moment. I visualize a lot of stuff and I visualized coming into the locker room celebrating. And it happened. There's no words to describe it. It was amazing." - freshman Jared McCain

UP NEXT

No. 21 Duke returns to Cameron Indoor Stadium for its final non-conference game of the 2023-24 season, taking on Queens on Dec. 30. The first meeting between the two teams starts at 2 p.m., airing on The CW.

To stay up to date with Blue Devils men's basketball, follow the team on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook by searching "DukeMBB".

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