The Associated Press

ORLANDO, Fla. - North Carolina State, seeded third in the Phoenix Regional, turned to its defense to overcome a slow start and beat Sun Belt Conference champion Louisiana-Lafayette 61-52 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

N.C. State will play Vanderbilt on Sunday.

"There's going to be grind-out games when you just have to do whatever it takes to win," North Carolina State's Julius Hodge said.

Marcus Melvin scored 20 points and the Wolfpack (21-9) survived a subpar game by Hodge, the Atlantic Coast Conference player of the year who turned over the ball six times and was held to 14 points on 5-for-13 shooting.

"I wasn't scoring so I had to do other things," said Hodge, who had 10 rebounds. "I hit the boards and did whatever it took. I didn't necessarily have to score 30 for us to win."

Louisiana-Lafayette (20-9) kept it interesting, cutting its biggest deficit - 11 points - to seven on Antoine Landry's 3-pointer with just under three minutes to go. North Carolina State put the game away by going 6-for-6 from the foul line the rest of the way.

Landry led Louisiana-Lafayette with 16 points, but the Ragin' Cajuns shot just 32.7 percent from the field, including 5-for-22 on 3-point attempts, and were held to their second-lowest point total of the season.

LOUISIANA-LAFAYETTE (20-9)-Hamilton 2-4 5-8 9, Cameron 2-3 0-0 4, Boyd 1-7 2-2 5, Greene 3-10 2-2 8, Bridges 0-5 4-7 4, Landry 5-11 2-2 16, Ch.Williams 0-0 0-0 0, Mitchell 2-3 0-2 4, Ce.Williams 1-6 0-0 2. Totals 16-49 15-23 52.

N.C. STATE (21-9)-Hodge 5-13 4-4 14, Melvin 5-8 7-8 20, Evtimov 2-8 4-5 8, Bennerman 3-7 3-5 10, Atsur 3-6 2-2 9, O'Donnell 0-1 0-0 0, Watkins 0-3 0-0 0, Collins 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 18-49 20-24 61.

Halftime-N.C. State 27-23. 3-Point Goals-Louisiana-Lafayette 5-22 (Landry 4-7, Boyd 1-7, Mitchell 0-1, Bridges 0-2, Greene 0-5), N.C. State 5-17 (Melvin 3-5, Atsur 1-3, Bennerman 1-3, Collins 0-1, Hodge 0-2, Watkins 0-3). Fouled out-Hamilton, Mitchell. Rebounds-Louisiana-Lafayette 32 (Hamilton 8), N.C. State 37 (Hodge 10). Assists-Louisiana-Lafayette 9 (Greene 6), N.C. State 10 (Atsur 4). Total fouls-Louisiana-Lafayette 21, N.C. State 20. A-NA.

Vanderbilt 71, Western Michigan 58

ORLANDO, Fla. - Mario Moore scored a career-best 26 points and hit six 3-pointers for the sixth-seeded Commodores, who won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time since 1993.

Vanderbilt (22-9) led by only two points after 35 minutes when drained his fourth 3-pointer of the second half, putting the Commodores up 58-53. Matt Freije's 3-pointer stretched the lead, and Vandy pulled away as Western Michigan (26-5) missed seven of its next eight shots.

W. MICHIGAN (26-5)-Snider 1-9 3-4 5, Williams 10-20 4-6 24, Kann 3-6 1-2 7, Willis 1-2 0-0 3, Reed 4-13 2-2 10, Berry 1-5 2-2 5, Rost 1-3 0-0 2, Madison 1-5 0-0 2, Bronson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 22-63 12-16 58.

VANDERBILT (22-9)-Freije 4-9 3-5 13, Smith 2-2 0-0 5, Przybyszewski 3-5 0-3 7, Moore 10-16 0-0 26, Lakey 0-3 2-4 2, Payton 1-1 0-0 2, Cage 1-3 0-0 3, Hundley 1-2 3-4 5, Terrell 3-4 0-2 6, Schnedlitz 1-1 0-0 2. Totals 26-46 8-18 71.

Halftime score-W M 34, Van. 31. 3-Point Goals-W M 2-19 (Willis 1-2, Berry 1-4, Madison 0-1, Rost 0-1, Williams 0-2, Snider 0-4, Reed 0-5), Van. 11-19 (Moore 6-8, Freije 2-5, Przybyszewski 1-1, Smith 1-1, Cage 1-2, Lakey 0-2). Fouled out-Kann. Rebounds-WM 36 (Reed 10), Van. 33 (Freije 8). Assists-WM 10 (Snider 6), Van. 16 (Lakey 4). Total fouls-WM 19, Van. 15. A-15,199