By DONNY NADEAU
Saint Mary's Sports Information Director
 
MOORHEAD, Minn. — The Saint Mary's University women's basketball team took the court Saturday riding a wave of momentum — thanks to Wednesday's streak-snappiong, 20-point 77-57s win over Macalester.
 
And the Cardinals rode that wave through the game's opening 10 minutes against Concordia Saturday.
 
Unfortunately, that momentum quickly shifted over the game's final three quarters, as the Cobbers outscored Saint Mary's 63-45 over the final 30 minutes in dealing the Cardinals a 76-60 conference setback at Memorial Auditorium.
 
The Cardinal offense came out firing against the Cobbers, jumping out to an early 6-1 lead and taking a two-point, 15-13 advantage into the second 10-minute quarter.
 
The Cardinals picked up where they left off to open the second quarter, scoring five unanswered points to expand their lead to seven, 20-13, only to have Concordia respond with a 9-2 run to knot the game at 22-22
 
And the Cobbers were just getting started, outscoring Saint Mary's 14-9 the rest of the way to take a 36-31 lead into the locker room at the break.
 
A lead they would not relinquish over the game's final 20 minutes.
 
Saint Mary's trimmed the CC lead to one, 45-44 on a pair of Rachel Kedl (Lamberton, Minn.) free throws with 2:12 to play in the third, but Concordia closed the quarter on a 7-0 run to give the Cobbers a 52-44 lead heading into the game's final stanza.
 
And what a stanza it proved to be — for the Cobbers.
 
Concordia scored eight of the first 10 points to grab a 14-point, 60-46 lead, and, after Saint Mary's whittled that lead to 10, 62-52, outscored the Cardinals 14-8 the rest of the way to picked up the victory.
 
Shayley Vesel (Austin, Minn.) scored 13 points to lead the Cardinal offensive attack, while Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) chipped in 10 and Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) added eight.
 
The Cardinals shot 32.8 percent from the field (20-for-61) — including a 9 of 29 showing from behind the 3-point line — while also adding an 11-for-22 performance from the free throw line.
 
Concordia — which was led by Autumn Thompson and Vanessa Kedl with 11 points each — knocked down 27 of 50 field goal attempts (54.0 percent) with seven 3-pointers and poured in 15 of 19 free throws.
 
After five straight road games, the Cardinals (2-12 MIAC, 2-17 overall) return home to the Saint Mary's Gym on Wednesday, entertaining Augsburg in a 7 p.m. conference matchup. The Cobbers (6-7 MIAC, 8-10 overall), meanwhile, are right back in action on Monday, returning home to Memorial Auditorium in Moorhead, Minn., for a 7 p.m. contest against Hamline in a game originally scheduled for Jan. 18.