It took more than 18 minutes in the second half for the Colonials to claw their way back to a lead against VCU Saturday afternoon. With 1:30 to play, senior forward Kevin Larsen sank a pair of free throws to put GW up by one.

But it took just seconds for GW, burned before by threes when they could least afford them, to leave VCU’s Jordan Burgess open in the corner on the next possession. His shot swished away, carrying with it the Colonials’ last lead of the game.

“Kevin made two big free throws, we put ourselves in the position to win off a timeout, we said we don’t want to give up a three under any circumstances and we wander off their most veteran player,” said head coach Mike Lonergan.

The Colonials (21-8, 10-6 A-10) got what they wanted for their last chance, a wide-open three-point look for senior forward Patricio Garino. But Garino, the best three-point shooter in the A-10, missed. Graduate student guard Alex Mitola grabbed the rebound and hit Garino again, but Garino missed a contested layup after taking the ball to the rim. A pair of free throws later, VCU (21-8, 13-3 A-10) walked out of the Smith Center with a 69-65 win.

“That wasn’t lack of effort, those were two good decisions. I feel bad for Patricio,” Lonergan said. “But I am disappointed that we walk away from Burgess and give him the game-winning three.”

Before Burgess’ three-pointer, the Colonials had finally gotten some stops to climb back in a game in which VCU shot 50 percent from the field. GW had six steals and five blocks (though nearly all of those came in the first half) but players missed assignments and were slow to help.

GW played mostly man and had some success face-guarding VCU point guard JeQuan Lewis (five points) and shooting guard Melvin Johnson (ten points on 4-for-9 shooting) but let lesser players score easily.

VCU sophomore guard Jonathan Williams scored a career-high 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting. Williams had a scary moment in the second half when he flew over the GW bench and into the guardrail in front of the first row of seats in the lower bowl of the Smith Center. He lay on the ground for a couple minutes but re-entered the game after trainers covered up a cut on his chest. Lonergan called him the “MVP of the game” and said he was most disappointed by the way his players allowed him to penetrate.

“With all due respect to the young man he’s not a shooter at all,” Lonergan said. “Here’s a guy that we don’t have to guard outside and we continue to let him get to the rim. He went by our guards, our bigs didn’t help.”

GW’s bigs, however, did the majority of the work on the other end for the Colonials. Tyler Cavanaugh led all scorers with 19 points and added six rebounds and Larsen scored 15 points to

go with seven rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal in a performance Lonergan called “focused.” Garino, who started getting to the rim consistently in the second half, scored 12 points on 6-of-13 shooting and added six rebounds.

All three players got more aggressive off the glass in the second half, accounting for six of GW’s ten offensive rebounds, all of which came after halftime. GW outrebounded VCU by one and got 17 second-chance points, both of which helped the Colonials get back in the game for the second time after VCU scored the first eight points of the second half.

“It was tough because we were right there,” Cavanaugh said. “We didn’t have our best game by any means defensively, just a couple plays – I left Burgess in the corner, he made a big shot but I mean credit to them, Williams and Burgess had great games and they’re a tough team but I thought that we had enough to come out on top today so it hurts.”

Both teams entered the game needing a win for their NCAA Tournament resumes. At tipoff, though, it was VCU that looked like the team fighting for its life. The Rams took a 10-2 lead early, demolishing the Colonials inside.

The “V-C-U” cheers first swelled above those for the Colonials when forward Mo Alie-Cox dunked on Cavanaugh, putting the junior forward on his back. Alie-Cox followed up with another dunk during the early run, and the Rams hit a number of mid-range jumpers.

Cavanaugh, though, got up on his feet and scored 13 of GW’s 27 total points in the first half. The Colonials climbed back in on his back, taking their first lead of the game at 17-16 after two points from Larsen from the free-throw line. The teams went back and forth and GW went into the lockers down 28-27 after a final three-pointer by Larsen.

The Colonials made 16-of-22 shots from the free throw line overall, while VCU went 8-for-10.

“Kevin was big at the free throw line down the stretch,” Cavanaugh said. “I missed two and then a front end and Alex missed one so if we make those we’re right there, but you know, it’s a lot of different things but we’ll be alright.”

The Colonials have a quick turnaround for their next game. George Mason comes to the Smith Center Tuesday night for an 8 p.m. matchup.