ST. LOUIS – A third-quarter drought sent the George Mason women's basketball team into a deficit too large to overcome.

The Patriots fell behind in the second half and never recovered in a 60-53 road loss to Saint Louis on Thursday night at the Chaifetz Arena. Sophomore Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored 29 points and eclipsed the 1,000-point in her career but it wasn't enough as the loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Patriots.

Mason ended the second quarter on an 8-0 run and took a 28-24 lead into halftime. But the third quarter was an offensive struggle for the Patriots (11-9, 3-4 Atlantic 10). They scored just nine points on 33 percent shooting. Sarah Kaminski drained a 3-pointer with 4:12 left to tie the game at 37-37.

Then Mason went quiet, failing to score the rest of the period. The Patriots committed five turnovers and missed three shots in the last four minutes. Saint Louis (9-12, 4-4) took advantage, going on a 9-0 run.

The Patriots showed some resiliency in the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to four points. Four straight points from Cardaño-Hillary sliced the deficit to 50-46 with 5:41 to go. But Mason again struggled to score, netting just four points over the final five minutes until Cardaño-Hillary sunk a 3-pointer as time expired.

Cardaño-Hillary became the 19th player in program history to score 1,000 career points. Her 3-pointer with 4:27 left in the first quarter pushed her over the 1,000-point plateau in just 54 games. The point guard from Madrid, Spain, currently ranks 17 th on Mason's all-time scoring list with 1,025 career points.

Kaminski added nine points on three 3-pointers and Camarie Gatling had six points and five rebounds. The Patriots shot just 36.8 percent from the field and committed 15 turnovers.

Mason stays on the road to play St. Bonaventure at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Olean, N.Y.