Virginia Commonwealth 74, George Washington 55: Treveon Graham scored 22 points as the Rams advanced to the Atlantic 10 tournament championship game at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y. and made coach Shaka Smart the winningest coach in program history.

Briante Weber added 16 points, eight assists, six rebounds and two steals for second-seeded VCU (26-7), which will play fourth-seeded Saint Joseph’s in Sunday’s final. Rob Brandenberg contributed nine points on 3-for-6 shooting from 3-point range and Juvonte Reddic finished with four points and 10 rebounds, half of which came on the offensive end.

Isaiah Armwood made his first five shots and finished with 15 points and six rebounds for third-seeded George Washington (24-8), which remains in good position for an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament. Nemanja Mikic scored 12 points off the bench and Kevin Larsen contributed 10 points but committed six turnovers for the Colonials.

The Rams suffered a big blow when third-leading scorer Melvin Johnson went down with a left knee injury during the first half and did not return. Graham, the team’s leading scorer, also picked up his second foul with just over nine minutes remaining in the opening half, but VCU still managed to take a 33-31 lead into the break.

Brandenberg sank a 3-pointer to beat the shot clock with 8:14 left to give VCU its biggest lead of the game to that point at 53-47 and the Rams continued to inch toward their sixth conference championship game appearance in the last eight years. Graham’s 3-pointer stretched the advantage to 60-51 with 5:37 remaining as VCU continued to pull away.

GAME NOTEBOOK: Kethan Savage, the second-leading scorer for the Colonials, made a brief return in the first half after missing eight weeks with a broken foot but did not collect a stat. … Smart moved past Sonny Smith, who coached the Rams from 1989-98, with his 137th victory at the school. … Fifteen of Reddic's last 31 rebounds have come on the offensive end.