No. 16 VCU 85, Tennessee 69: Melvin Johnson scored 20 of his 23 points in the first half as the Rams won their season opener over the Volunteers in the inaugural Veterans Classic at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

Treveon Graham scored 15 points and grabbed a career-high 14 rebounds for VCU, which won its season opener for the ninth straight time. Terry Larrier chipped in 11 points off the bench and Jordan Burgess scored 10 for the Rams.

Josh Richardson scored 17 points but had seven of his team's 19 turnovers as the Volunteers dropped their opener under new head coach Donnie Tyndall. Detrick Mostella also had 17 points in a reserve role, hitting three of Tennessee's four 3-pointers.

Johnson's second 3-pointer snapped a 14-14 tie to give VCU the lead for good and set off a 12-1 burst. He also had seven points in a 20-7 run to close the first half as the Rams took a 48-30 advantage into the break.

Graham was 0-for-6 in the opening 20 minutes before burying a 3-pointer a minute into the second half to make it 51-32, but the Rams would endure a stretch of nearly five minutes without a field goal and Mostella's triple with 7:43 left cut the Volunteers' deficit to 67-59. Burgess scored five straight VCU points in just over a minute to help push the lead back to double digits and Tennessee never got closer than eight points down the stretch.

GAME NOTEBOOK: VCU played without star G Briante Weber, who was suspended for one game due to the alleged theft of an iPhone this summer. ... The Volunteers made just 5-of-15 free throws over the final 12-plus minutes of the first half and finished 17-of-33 at the line. ... Rams G Doug Brooks had nine points and three steals off the bench.