RALEIGH – Everything about Duke’s first game of the NCAA tournament went according to plan.

Right down to Spencer Hubbard checking in for the last 3-plus minutes.

Cooper Flagg returned from a two-game absence and had 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists in 22 minutes, an all-around impressive performance in the Blue Devils’ 93-49 victory against Mount St. Mary’s on Friday at Lenovo Center.

Duke will play Baylor on Sunday in the second round. The Bears edged Mississippi State 75-72 in the early game, getting 19 points from Robert O. Wright III and 16 from V.J. Edgecombe, their explosive freshman guard duo.

There are storylines galore in that one. You know the obvious one with former Blue Devil Jeremy Roach facing his former team; Edgecombe was a Duke recruit up until his commitment to Baylor; Wright and Flagg were teammates last season at Montverde Academy; and Norchad Omier is at Baylor after spending the past two seasons at Miami.

More on that later — for now, recapping Duke’s win over Mount St. Mary’s starts with domination early and continuing through the final buzzer.

Duke (32-3) scored on four possessions in the first 100 seconds. The most impressive part of that might have been that each starter either scored or assisted in that tone-setting flurry. There was a Khaman Maluach lob, Tyrese Proctor 3-pointer and Flagg three-point play.

There wasn’t a “kill shot,” the term from EvanMiya for a run of at least 10 straight points, in the first half. Rather, it was a bunch of mini-runs, scoring on two, three and four straight possessions at a time. By the last media timeout of the first half, Duke’s lead was 46-22.

To that point, Duke’s points per possession clip was at 1.70.

The first time Duke’s lead hit the 20-point mark was on the third of Proctor’s six 3-pointers. That matched a season-high for made 3s in a game, which he set in the ACC championship game.

He led Duke with 19 points.

There was a kill shot in the second half, a 19-0 run that took the lead from 24 to 43.

Duke’s starting lineup with Flagg in it — and Sion James, Proctor, Kon Knueppel and Maluach — is now 24-1 this season.