MOORHEAD, Minn. — For three quarters, the Saint Mary's University women's basketball team gave Concordia all it could handle.
Unfortunately for Cardinal head coach
David Foley, a basketball game consists of four quarters — and SMU would not be granted a third-quarter do-over.
Concordia outscored the Cardinals 21-5 in the third frame — including a quarter-ending 15-1 run — as the Cobbers erased a two-point SMU halftime lead and dealt Saint Mary's an 83-65 Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference setback Saturday afternoon at Memorial Auditorium.
Both teams had opportunities to play with the lead, but neither could gain any traction when they did get the chance to play from in front — until the final 1:30, that is.
Neither team would lead by more than two through the first five minutes of the opening quarter, before Saint Mary's took control, using an 8-2 run to build its biggest lead of the quarter, 20-15. Concordia, however, did the Cardinals one better, closing the quarter on a 9-0 burst to take a 24-20 lead into the second quarter.
Saint Mary's quickly regained its mojo, scoring five straight points to open the second quarter for an early, 25-24 SMU lead. Concordia would regain the lead, 30-27, only to have
Izzy Goettelman (Winona, Minn.) answer with back-to-back 3-pointers, and a 33-30 SMU advantage with 2:37 on the clock.
The three-point lead quickly morphed into a three-point deficit, as the Cobbers knocked down a pair of 3-pointers of their own to regain the upper hand, 36-33. But an
Alyssa Coleman (Matteson, Ill.) layup and a buzzer-beating 3-pointer by
Ashley Streveler (Colby, Wis.) allowed SMU to end the half with five unanswered points — and a 38-36 halftime lead.
The second half began in much the same fashion as the first half did — with neither team able to create any breathing room — and, with 5:51 to play in the third quarter, the teams were deadlocked at 42-42.
Unfortunately for the Cardinals, those final five-plus minutes belonged to the Cobbers, who closed out the quarter on a 15-1 run to leave the Cardinals staring at a 14-point, 57-43 deficit heading into the fourth quarter.
CC pushed its lead to 21, 66-45 early in the fourth quarter, and the Cardinals would not get closer than 18 the rest of the way in dropping their second straight.
Brooklyn Paulson (Holmen, Wis.) led the way for the Cardinals, scoring 15 points and adding nine rebounds, while Goettelman chipped in 13 points. As a team, SMU shot 39.0 percent from the field (23 of 59) with seven 3-pointers and finished 12-for-17 from the free throw line.
The Cardinals (2-4 MIAC, 2-4 overall) are back in action on Wednesday, when they return home to the Saint Mary's Gym for a 7 p.m. nonconference game against UW-Stevens Point.
