George Washington Victory an Inside Job : West Regional: The Colonials beat Southern, 90-80, to advance to a round-of-16 game in Seattle against Michigan.

George Washington likes the power game, and the Colonials used it Sunday to wear down Southern University and win, 90-80, to advance to the NCAA West Regional semifinals.

George Washington will play Michigan at Seattle on Friday.

Sonni Holland scored 19 points and sophomore Nimbo Hammons had 13 points and nine rebounds. And they had plenty of help inside from 7-foot-1 freshmen center Yinka Dare of Nigeria, who added eight points and nine rebounds.

Southern guard Jervaughn Scales said the Jaguars (21-10) were not used to bumping bodies and flailing hands.

“They were grabbing, hooking, and the refs weren’t calling it,” he said. “I’m used to playing physical, but it got out of hand.”

George Washington (21-8), winners of the Atlantic 10 Conference, upset New Mexico on Friday with a similar strategy. Still, some were not sure the Colonials were really that good.

“We’re Cinderellas, and we’ll probably read ‘Cinderella’ tonight before we go to bed,” said Mike Jarvis, George Washington’s coach.

The Colonials took a 10-0 lead as Dare scored six points. George Washington led by 14 points with 11:33 to play in the half.

But Southern, the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament champion, did not fold. Behind the solid shooting of Terry Thames (27 points) and Leonard White (19), the Jaguars were on the verge of making it a close game.

But they simply could not get there.

“I thought if we could get to within three (points) we would have had a chance,” said Ben Jobe, Southern coach.

“We’ve been down so many times this season, we always managed to come back. Sometimes the ammunition is not there, and you try to reload and it just does not work.”

Southern shot only 34%. George Washington concentrated on its inside game and shot 51%.