Grand Rapids, Mich. — The Aquinas women's basketball team went to the locker room tied 23-23 on Wednesday evening (Dec. 7), but were outscored by 14 points in the second half to fall 53-39 to Concordia inside the Sturrus Center.

The Saints dropped to 4-6 overall (2-5 WHAC) with the home defeat, while Concordia won its third straight contest to improve to 8-4 overall (6-2 WHAC).

Aquinas rotated in 12 different players looking for a spark to hang with the Cardinals in the second half. Nine different AQ players ended up scoring with no one reaching double digits, as Emily Cline scored a team-high 9 points on 4-for-6 shooting.

The WHAC contest was largely decided on the glass with Concordia outrebounding Aquinas 54-28 with a 22-4 advantage in offensive rebounds. Julia Hirt and Izzy Viau each pulled down four offensive rebounds.

The Cardinals' offense was spearheaded by Samantha Dorn (17 points) and Taylor Leatherman (16), as they combined for over half of Concordia's points on 12-for-32 shooting. Leatherman buried a 3-pointer in the final seconds of the second quarter to even the score at halftime, 23-23.

AQ last led at 28-27 before the Cardinals went on a 12-2 run to end the third quarter. Concordia's biggest lead came at 50-34 following another Leatherman triple and the Cardinals coasted to the final buzzer for a 53-39 win. The 39 points scored by AQ was a season-low.

The Saints did pick up nine steals from eight different players while only turning the ball over 11 times — tied for a season-low. Shots just didn't fall with AQ shooting 30% for the game (18% on 3-pointers) and only 28% in the second half.

Cline, Mauriya Barnes and Alexis Thomas made the Saints' three triples in the contest. Thomas, Brighton Miller and JaKarri Alven each grabbed a team-high four rebounds. 

Aquinas returns to action on Saturday (Dec. 10) with its Holiday Hoops contest against UM-Dearborn. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m. with the men's game against UM-Dearborn to follow.