George Washington 53, Colorado 50: Joe McDonald posted 14 points and six rebounds as the Colonials held on to defeat the Buffaloes in the semifinals of the Diamond Head Classic in Honolulu.

John Kopriva chipped in 11 points for George Washington (8-3), which meets No. 11 Wichita State in Thursday's championship game. Yuta Watanabe tallied 10 points and six boards as the Colonials survived despite 1-of-8 shooting beyond the arc.

Wesley Gordon and Josh Scott scored 10 points apiece for Colorado (7-4), which faces Hawaii in Thursday’s third-place game. Askia Booker, the Buffaloes’ leading who was coming off a career-high tying 27-point effort in Monday’s victory over DePaul, picked up two fouls in the first 4:12 and finished with eight points, all in the second half.

As soon as Booker left with foul trouble, George Washington capitalized with a 13-5 surge to build an early nine-point lead before Jaron Hopkins capped an 11-4 rally near the end of the first half with a thunderous baseline dunk. The Colonials missed their first six shots over the first 6:45 of the second half, opening the door for the Buffaloes to take a 37-32 advantage when they connected on five of their first seven field-goal attempts.

George Washington got a driving layup from Kopriva and dunk by McDonald to take its first lead of the second half at 46-45 with 3:47 to go. Booker gave Colorado a pair of one-point edges with consecutive buckets, but Scott – a 86.9-percent foul shooter entering Tuesday – missed the second of two foul shots with 32 seconds remaining and Booker missed two potential game-tying 3-pointers in the final 14 seconds.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Colorado, which went 31-of-38 from the foul line against DePaul, converted 11-of-17 from the stripe Tuesday. … The Colonials’ top two scorers – Patricio Garino (15.1) and Kethan Savage (12.7) – were held to six and five points, respectively, on a combined 2-for-11 effort from the field. … Colorado and George Washington combined to miss their first 11 3-point attempts until Hopkins ended the drought with 13:57 left in the second half. Watanabe drained the first one for the Colonials with 10:20 as both teams finished with one 3-pointer on a combined 20 attempts.