Cara Waterson scored 23 points and Ellie Gonyeau added 17 points for the St. Lawrence University Women's Basketball team but Plattsburgh's Devona Paul led all scorers with 49 points leading the Cardinals to an 81-71 win Tuesday night in a non-conference game at Memorial Gym in Plattsburgh.

The loss is the first of the season for the Saints (3-1) who started the season with three consecutive victories. Plattsburgh improved to 4-0 with the win.

"We just didn't compete tonight," said Head Coach Dan Roiger. "We didn't have much energy and really didn't play very well in any phase of the game and when that happens we are going to lose games and that is exactly what happened tonight."

Both teams struggled in the first quarter with Plattsburgh taking a slim 14-10 lead after the first 10 minutes of action.

In the second quarter, St. Lawrence battled back, scoring 23 points in the period and the teams went into the halftime intermission with a 33-33 tie. Waterson scored 13 of her 23 points in the first half.

A 9-0 Plattsburgh run in the latter portion of the third quarter gave the Cardinals the lead for good and St. Lawrence was unable to get any closer than four points the rest of the game.

A layup by Gonyeau with just seven seconds left in the third cut the lead to five points at 62-57 and a free throw by Waterson early in the fourth cut the lead to four points.

The teams traded free throws over the next several minutes and two by Caroline Dalton at the 6:38 mark of the final quarter made it a 66-62 Plattsburgh lead. Paul scored the next six points of the game all from the free throw line to build a double-digit advantage with less than five minutes remaining. Plattsburgh connected on 7-of-8 free throws down the stretch to seal the victory.

The Saints limited Plattsburgh to 1-for-12 shooting from beyond the 3-point arc but surrendered 36 points from the free throw line where the Cardinals were 36-for-42. St. Lawrence finished the game14-for-21 from the charity stripe and was 9-for-28 on long range shots.

St. Lawrence returns to action Saturday with a non-conference game at Ithaca. The 2 pm game is part of a doubleheader with the men's team against the Bombers.