RALEIGH, N.C. — With 7:56 left in the first half, Duke was locked in a tight game against Baylor, down a point, with star Cooper Flagg in early foul trouble and the upset-minded Bears tormenting the Blue Devils in the paint.

That’s when Duke unleashed what head coach Jon Scheyer called its “killer instinct.”

Duke closed the half on a 24-6 run to open a 17-point lead before dominating the second half to move on to the Sweet 16 with an 89-66 win over the Bears.

“It’s a thing we’ve spoken about a lot as a team, just not letting our foot off the gas,” said Tyrese Proctor, who led all scorers with 25 points, including seven 3-pointers. “Valuing the ball’s a big, and once our defense gets cooking, it’s hard to stop us, and it’s been a lot of fun.”

Fun for Duke, not so much for the opposition.

The Blue Devils have now won their first two games of this NCAA tournament by a combined 67 points, tied for the eight-largest margin through two games in tournament history, according to ESPN Research.

Duke has now won 13 straight, and of its 33 wins this season, 21 have come by at least 20 points.

“That’s not what we’re focused on,” said Flagg, who finished with 18 points, nine rebounds and six assists. “We’re just out here playing each possession, trying to beat teams as best we can.”

And yet, when Duke gets rolling, those margins just sort of happen.

“Our big thing is just doing it possession by possession, doing it every single time,” point guard Sion James said. “Every time down the floor we think of as an individual battle, and if you win enough battles, you’re going to win the war. So up 10, up 30, whatever the number may be, we’re going to battle every time down the floor, and eventually teams aren’t going to want to keep playing. We know they’re going to break at some point if we keep doing our job.”

It was a 12-0 run at the end of the first half that may have been the breaking point for Baylor, who never fully recovered. VJ Edgecombe‘s 3 with 16:31 to go pulled the Bears to within 13 — as close as they’d get the rest of the way.

The robust winning margins for Duke are indicative of a team bent on dominance as much as winning, but as ESPN Research notes, of the eight other teams to win by this much in their first two tournament games, only one — 1963 Loyola Chicago — won it all. (Six of them made the Final Four, however.)

Duke is all too aware of just how tenuous its grip on success is, even amid the monster margins. Scheyer said he’s noted the Blue Devils’ near collapse against North Carolina in the ACC tournament, when a 21-point lead evaporated into a nail-biting finish.

And at this point, there are no second chances — something Flagg said remains on his mind, even when Duke is up big.

“Knowing it could be your last game,” Flagg said, “knowing it’s win or go home. There’s a competitive edge in our group. We have 14 guys who give 100%.”