DAYTON, Ohio --

VCU sure looked as if it belonged in the tournament Wednesday night.

Jamie Skeen scored 16 points and VCU more than held its own inside against bigger and stronger Southern California in a 59-46 NCAA "First Four" victory.

"It feels really good because a lot of people were doubting us," Skeen said. "We were able to come out and prove some people wrong. Instead of just talking about it, we just came out here and played."

The 11th-seeded teams traded elbows and punishing defense all night, with the Rams (24-11) pulling away down the stretch to set up a game against sixth-seeded Georgetown (21-10) on Friday in Chicago.

Joey Rodriguez had eight points and five assists for VCU, but was one of many standouts for the Rams.

Even though the Trojans started two 6-foot-10 wide-bodies inside, the Rams held a 40-31 edge in rebounding.

"We really followed the game plan in terms of what we were trying to do to stop USC," said VCU coach Shaka Smart, the second-youngest coach in the NCAA field at 33. "They obviously have a lot of weapons. Our guys did a really good job for 40 minutes on the defensive end. This is as good as we've played defensively. Early on offensively we were a little jittery. But our guys really settled down and we made more than enough shots as the game wore on."

Jio Fontan had 14 points and Nikola Vucevic 11 for USC (19-15), which had just one field goal over the final 9 minutes.