George Washington 60 - 54 Wichita State
Final
  for this game

GW upends No. 11 Wichita State

Dec 26, 2014 - 4:54 AM Honolulu, HI (SportsNetwork.com) - Yuta Watanabe and Kevin Larsen hit the back-to-back 3-pointers late in the second half to catapult George Washington to a 60-54 upset of 11th-ranked Wichita State in the championship game of the Diamond Head Classic.

Kethan Savage had 12 points, while Larsen and Watanabe each scored 10 for the Colonials (9-3), who finished the contest on a 17-4 run. GW smashed Ohio in its tournament opener before edging Colorado on Tuesday.

Fred VanVleet had 11 points for Wichita State (10-2), which handily beat Loyola Marymount in its first game at this tournament, then got by Hawaii in overtime on Tuesday.

The Shockers shot just 34.4 percent from the field.

Ron Baker's jumper extended Wichita State's lead to 52-47 with 6:11 left, but Watanabe, a freshman, responded with a jumper to start GW's big game-ending surge. Savage then came up with a steal, and his spin move in the lane turned into a layup with 5:17 remaining.

Watanabe's 3-pointer from the left wing gave the Colonials the edge with 3:33 to go. After Baker air-balled a 3-pointer at the other end, Larsen drilled a step-back shot from the top of the arc for a 57-52 margin with 2:50 left.

The Shockers turned the ball over on a poor pass, and that led to Joe McDonald's driving layup for a seven-point cushion with just over a minute remaining.

GW had a pair of turnovers in the final minute, but the Shockers couldn't capitalize.

Wichita State led by as many as seven in the first half, but the game was tied at 28 at the break. The Shockers led by as many as eight in the second half, the last time at 48-40 following a Darius Carter 3-pointer with 7:45 to go.

It was 50-43 after VanVleet's layup with 7:08 left.

Game Notes

Wichita State's next game is at Drake in its Missouri Valley Conference opener on New Year's Eve ... GW, which made 51.1 percent of its field-goal attempts, hosts Virginia Military on Dec. 30 ... The Shockers were missing starting forward Evan Wessel (ankle) for a third straight game.






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