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Game Summary / GameDay Online

WINONA, Minn. — Two minutes.

For the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team, that two-minute span was the difference between winning and losing Sunday afternoon.

That two-minute span was the difference between the Cardinals' first win since posting back-to-back wins over Coe and St. Olaf in early January and a fourth straight loss.

Unfortunately for SMU, in that two-minute span late in the first half, the Cardinals turned the ball over three straight times, allowed Concordia to rattled off 10 unanswered points and take a commanding, eight-point lead into the locker room at halftime.

A lead the Cobbers would not relinquish in handing SMU a 66-57 setback at the SMU Gym.

In a half that saw five ties — the last at 23-23 with 4:54 left on the clock — Concordia grabbed a 26-25 advantage, then rattled off 10 straight points to take their biggest lead of the half, and the game, 36:25 with less than 30 seconds remaining. Jesa Hall (Glenwood City, Wis.) would drain a 3-pointer to cut the gap to eight, 36-28, heading into the halftime intermission, but the damage was done.

Not that the Cardinals didn't give it a valiant effort over the game's final 20 minutes.

SMU got as close as six on three separate occasions in the second half, the last time — 61-55 — on a Jess Miller (Carver, Minn.) 3-pointer with 40 seconds remaining. The Cobbers, however, knocked down five straight free throws before Jess Weisbrod (Rollingstone, Minn.) closed out the scoring with a rebound basket in the waning seconds.

Wesibrod finished with a game-high 19 points — including 13 in the second half — marking the 10th time in SMU's 14 games that the SMU senior has scored in double figures. Stephanie Ayers (Deer River, Minn.) chipped in 11 points for the Cardinals, who fall to 2-9 in the MIAC and 3-11 overall.

Melannie Hageman and Sara Sorbo each netted 14 points to lead the way for Concordia, which have now won eight of its last nine.