March Madness: No doubt as Duke cruises past Oral Roberts, 74-51

As Jeremy Roach drove on the baseline, the window of opportunity at the basket started to disappear. Undeterred, the Duke guard spun around for a reverse layup that drew “oohs and aahs” from the crowd at the Amway Center as the No. 5 Blue Devils pulled away from the No. 12 Oral Roberts 74-51 in their first-round NCAA tournament game Thursday.

Roach finished with game-high 23 points as Duke cruised to the second round Saturday.

It was the largest margin of victory for a Blue Devils team in the NCAA tournament since an 87-62 win over Pittsburgh in 2018.

Duke raced out to an early 11-0 lead as Oral Roberts missed its first eight shots from the floor to start the game. The lead grew to 15-0 as the Golden Eagles went scoreless for more than 8 minutes before DeShang Weaver’s layup ended the scoring drought.

Duke guard Jeremy Roach (3) scores over Oral Roberts guard Kareem Thompson (2) as the Blue Devils advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament with a 24-point win over the Golden Eagles Thursday. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

The Blue Devils expanded their lead to as many as 20 points at 38-18 with 1:09 left in the first before guard Max Abmas scored 5 points on the final two Oral Roberts possessions to pull within 40-23 at the half.

This was Oral Roberts’ second appearance in the NCAA tournament in the past three seasons, with the Golden Eagles advancing to the Sweet 16 in 2021 after upsets over Ohio State and Florida.

Abmas was the only Golden Eagles player in double-figures in scoring with 12 points and five assists, followed by guard Issac McBride (8 points) and reserve forward Patrick Mwamba (8 points).

Dariq Whitehead had 13 points for the Blue Devils, while Dereck Lively II had 12 rebounds in the victory.

This article first appeared on OrlandoSentinel.com. Email Matt Murschel at mmurschel@orlandosentinel.com or follow him on Twitter at @osmattmurschel.