NCAA Game Summary - Texas-San Antonio vs. Stanford

Seattle, WA (Basketball News) - Josh Childress had 26 points and nine rebounds, as Stanford ran away with a 71-45 win over Texas-San Antonio in the first round of the NCAA Tournament at KeyArena.

The Cardinal (30-1), who were leading by only six with 13 1/2 minutes left, are the top seed in the Phoenix bracket and will next face ninth-seeded Alabama in second-round action on Saturday. The Crimson Tide held on to defeat Southern Illinois 65-64 earlier in the day thanks to an Antoine Pettway running jumper in the lane with just five seconds remaining.

Matt Haryasz added 10 points for Stanford, which ended the game by outscoring the Roadrunners 27-7. The Cardinal, who are the Pac-10 regular season and tournament champions, won their fourth straight. Stanford’s only loss of the season came in its regular-season finale at Washington.

"We have to play better if we expect to win here on out," Stanford head coach Mike Montgomery said.

LeRoy Hurd had 18 points to lead the Roadrunners (19-14), who saw a seven-game winning streak end. The Southland Conference Tournament champions were making their third NCAA Tournament appearance in school history.

Trailing by 14 points to start the second half, the Roadrunners scored six of the first seven points of the stanza to draw within 38-29. Stanford answered to increase its lead to 13 points by scoring the next four points, but a 9-2 burst by Texas-San Antonio drew the club within 44-38. A John Millsap layup with 12:16 left capped the run, which got the Roadrunners as close as they would get.

Stanford responded by scoring the next 14 points to take a 58-38 lead. Coming out of a timeout with 11:49 left, the Cardinal held the Roadrunners to a shot clock violation, and a Rob Little dunk with 10:44 left started the burst, which saw Childress score eight points.

"My performance could have been a lot better," said Childress, who shot 9- for-15 from the floor and 6-for-6 from the free throw line. "There were times I played without energy. Overall I need to be stronger."

Texas-San Antonio shot horridly after the time out. The Roadrunners missed 17 straight shots over a 10 1/2-minute stretch until Hurd’s layup with 1:30 left ended the drought. During that span Stanford went on a 23-2 run.

Texas-San Antonio finished shooting just 15-of-63 for 23.8 percent. The squad also went only 2-of-15 from three-point land.

"We did a good job defensively," said Montgomery. "What hurt us was our inability to rebound. They had 22 offensive rebounds which is unusual for us to allow."

The Cardinal led 17-9 9 1/2 minutes into the contest and extended that to 28-12 four minutes later when Justin Davis hit a pair of free throws. From there the Roadrunners hung around and went into the break down 37-23.