Watanabe with 31, George Washington beats Fordham 72-56

Mar 1, 2018, 02:12 am

WASHINGTON -- Yuta Watanabe scored a career-high 31 points and George Washington beat Fordham 72-56 on Wednesday night.

Watanabe was 11 of 17 from the field and hit all seven of his free throws for the Colonials (14-16, 7-10 Atlantic 10 Conference). Patrick Steeves added 12 points and Bo Zeigler had 10 points and eight rebounds.

George Washington shot 50 percent from the field compared to 34 percent for Fordham and had a 41-32 rebounding edge.

Watanabe scored 19 points in the first half, leading the Colonials to a 44-25 advantage at the break.

Zeigler had a layup and a dunk and Terry Nolan Jr. hit a 3-pointer as part of an 11-6 run to open the second half, pushing George Washington's lead to 55-31 with 13:59 to play and the Colonials cruised from there.

Prokop Slanina scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds for the Rams (9-20, 4-13) who have lost five straight.