Watanabe leads Colonials past La Salle, ending 4-game slide

Updated: Feb 8, 2018, 02:56 am

WASHINGTON -- Yuta Watanabe hit from distance, threw down dunks and scored a career-high 29 points as George Washington upended La Salle 80-69 Wednesday night, ending a four-game slide.

Patrick Steeves and Arnoldo Toro scored 15 points each for George Washington, which led for all but two minutes. Watanabe shot 11 of 20 from the floor, including 5 of 7 from 3-point range. He added eight rebounds.

The Colonials (10-14, 3-8 Atlantic 10) led 39-33 at the half. La Salle (10-14, 4-7) couldn't catch up with 38-percent shooting and 17 turnovers and fell to 2-12 away from home.

Pookie Powell and Saul Phiri scored 16 points each for La Salle, B. J. Johnson added 14. The trio was a combined 17 of 38. Freshman Miles Brookins added 11 points.

The Colonials hadn't won a game since mid-January while La Salle had won two of its last three.