PROVIDENCE, R.I. - The Yale Bulldogs, making the program's first NCAA appearance since 1962, pulled off the first major upset of this year's tournament by holding off a late charge and stunning Baylor 79-75 on Thursday.

The 12th-seeded Bulldogs, champions of the Ivy League, used a 23-10 second-half run and then held on to eliminate the fifth-seeded Bears and advance to Saturday's second round of the West Regional against Duke. The Blue Devils were a 93-85 winner over North Carolina-Wilmington in the first game of the four-game day.

Baylor, eliminated by a lower seed for the second straight year, didn't go quietly, rallying from 12 down behind Taurean Prince to get as close as one - on a Prince 3-pointer with 12.9 seconds left.

The Bears had a chance to tie or win after Nick Victor air-balled the second free throw with 6.8 seconds left. But an out-of-control Lester Medford coughed the ball up and Brandon Sherrod iced the game with two free throws.

Yale, located just down I-95 in New Haven, Conn., had a large fan contingent that erupted at the final horn.

Last year, third-seeded Baylor was KO'd by No. 14 Georgia State in the round of 64.

The win was the sixth in a row and the 18th in the last 19 games for the Bulldogs (23-6). Baylor finishes 22-12 with five losses in its last seven games.

Makai Mason scored a career-high 31 points - CBS reporting it as a Yale all-time postseason high -- and Justin Sears added 22 despite second-half foul trouble. Sears missed two free throws with 39.4 seconds remaining and his team up by four, keeping Baylor alive.

Prince finished with 28 points and Johnathan Motley added 15 in the loss.

The Bears opened with a 7-2 run, but the Bulldogs quickly caught up and then rode Mason into a back-and-forth with the higher seeds. An 8-3 run put Yale up six and the lead was five at the half.

Prince cut his team's deficit to two with an emphatic slam dunk with 47.6 seconds left in the half but hung on the rim and received a technical foul. Mason hit the free throw and Sears hit two with 28.2 seconds remaining for the five-point lead at the break.

The Bears opened the second half with a 6-0 run to take the lead, but the Bulldogs came right back with six straight of their own, highlighted by a baseline move and slam by Sears.

NOTES: John F. Kennedy was the president the last time Yale played in the NCAA Tournament, when the Bulldogs lost to Wake Forest 92-82 at the Palestra in Philadelphia. Wake Forest was led by future broadcasting icon Billy Packer. ... Baylor came in 11-11 all-time in NCAA play. ... The Bears join Michigan State and Oklahoma as the only programs in the country ranked in both men's and women's basketball and in football. ... Yale has been without captain Jack Montague since the 20th game of the season after he was expelled from school for an on-campus incident. He averaged 9.7 points per game. ... G Ishmail Wainright hit a 3-pointer 2:16 into the game, giving Baylor 800 straight games with at least one trey. The last time the Bears didn't hit one was Feb. 21, 1990.