San Antonio, VCU earn ‘First Four’ wins, advance

Associated Press

DAYTON

Shot by shot, Melvin Johnson III played up to his penmanship.

The smooth guard with “SWISH” scrawled on the side of each orange shoe scored a career-high 29 points Wednesday night, putting on the most scintillating show so far in the NCAA tournament while leading Texas-San Antonio to a 70-61 victory over Alabama State in the “First Four” round.

The Roadrunners (20-13) and their smooth guard head to Cleveland for a game Friday against top-seeded Ohio State, which won’t allow all those open shots.

Against Alabama State (17-18), Johnson took advantage of every one. The sophomore had a career high in the first half alone, when he outscored the star-struck Hornets 25-21.

Tramayne Moorer and Jeff Middlebrooks had 12 points apiece for Alabama State, which had the worst record in the expanded 68-team tournament.

The Roadrunners came to Dayton with a stated goal: UTEP had never won an NCAA tournament game of any sort. Now, they’ve got reason to raise a banner in their 4,080-seat UTSA Convocation Center.

Might as well let Johnson pick the spot.

The 6-foot-5 guard did everything Wednesday. He scored off drives to the hoop and made fall-away jumpers from every spot, hardly missing in the decisive first half. Johnson was 8 of 14 from the field, making one less field goal than all the Hornets combined.

He also got to shoot four free throws after a pair of technicals on the Hornets. He made ’em all, of course.

Johnson even connected while sitting on the court after getting fouled in the second half. He playfully flipped the ball at the basket, and it went in.

VCU 59, SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 46

Jamie Skeen scored 16 points and VCU held Southern California to just 39.5 percent shooting from the field (15 of 38) to advance. The Rams (24-11) advanced to play No. 6 seed Georgetown on Friday in Chicago.

Jio Fontan and Nikola Vucevic scored 14 and 11 points for USC (19-15), but both fouled out.