NEW YORK -- George Washington coach Mike Lonergan's strategy wasn't to stick with a 1-3-1 zone against San Diego State in the semifinals of the NIT on Tuesday, but an injury to a key player and some foul trouble forced him into that plan.

The result was a dominating 65-46 win from George Washington, whose zone frustrated San Diego State into shooting just 28.8 percent from the field, including 3-for-22 from 3-point range.

The Aztecs never led, and the game was tied for just 1:08 of the first half.

The Colonials (27-10) will face Valparaiso (30-6) in the final on Thursday.

Tyler Cavanaugh paced George Washington with 20 points and 11 rebounds. Patricio Garino added 13 points.

Dakarai Allen led San Diego State (28-10) with 13 points. No other Aztec topped seven points.

George Washington hit 42.6 percent of its field-goal attempts, including seven of 19 from 3-point range.

San Diego State never got closer than 55-41 in the second half while consistently trailing by between 15 and 18 points.

"Part of it was early in the game it was 9-3 and we had nine fouls and were guarding against foul trouble," said Lonergan of the decision to go to the 1-3-1. "Then Joe McDonald sprained his ankle pretty bad, so at halftime we talked to the team.

"I wanted to play Joe. He's a senior, and we just decided if we were going to play him, we'd probably have to hide him on the weak side of the 1-3-1. That's why we stuck with it.

"They weren't making many threes, and we were able to keep Joe in there even though he wasn't 100 percent."

McDonald recorded nine points and six assists in 31 minutes.

The Aztecs connected on only two of their final 13 shots.

The Colonials outscored the Aztecs 13-8 to open the second half and take a commanding 48-28 lead with 14:30 left.

"Coming out in the second half has been a weakness for us," Lonergan said. "But tonight we made shots, and that was big. The first four minutes of the second are huge, and that's when you knock a team out like we did tonight."

San Diego State trailed for nearly the entire first half but got as close as 19-16 before George Washington ended the half on a 16-4 run to boost its lead to 35-20. Cavanaugh had nine points in the spurt.

The Aztecs missed their last six shots of the half from the field and were just 6-for-25 (24 percent) in the opening 20 minutes.

"We had some looks, but we didn't make them," said Aztecs forward Winston Shepard, who scored seven point. "I was 3-for-13 (from the floor), so I didn't make enough shots."

The Colonials led 17-8 midway through the first half after Yuta Watanabe sank a 3-pointer.

San Diego State missed its first six shots of the game but only trailed 4-0 after four minutes.

"I just can't let the season end like this," Aztecs coach Steve Fisher said. "This is our last game. It was on a big stage, and we were immensely excited to be a part of it.

"We thought we were going to win. We thought we were the better team. We didn't and we weren't. (George Washington) sliced and diced us. We played poorly. It's that simple."

NOTES: In the first three games of the NIT, San Diego State defeated its opponents by an average of 18 points. ... This was the first meeting between the schools. ... George Washington features six 1,000-point career scorers on its roster. ... San Diego State's 11th straight appearance in the postseason is tied for the eighth-longest active streak in the country.