PHILADELPHIA – A second-half surge wasn't enough to salvage a shaky opening 20 minutes for the George Mason women's basketball team.

Sophomore Nicole Cardaño-Hillary scored a game-high 30 points but the Patriots couldn't fend off La Salle in a 77-71 overtime loss on Saturday to end the regular season at Tom Gola Arena. The Explorers made a game-tying 3-pointer with seven seconds left in regulation and then held the Patriots to just five points in the extra period.

Mason (16-13, 8-8 A-10) now turns its attention to the Atlantic 10 Women's Basketball Championship. The Patriots will be the No. 7 seed and host No. 10 seed Massachusetts at noon on Tuesday at EagleBank Arena. Mason defeated the Minutewomen 70-52 on Jan. 16 in Amherst, Mass., in the teams' lone meeting this season.

Cardano-Hillary, who scored 22 points after halftime, sank an off-balanced 3-pointer with the shot clock winding down to give the Patriots a 66-63 lead with 28 seconds to go. But La Salle's Shalina Miller answered with a trey with seven seconds left. Mason called a timeout and set up a final play but Sarah Kaminski's deep 30pointer from the top of the key banged off the back rim and out.

The Explorers scored the first six points of overtime and never looked back. Jacy Bolton cut the lead to 74-71 with 20 seconds left but La Salle made three of its four final free throws to ice the victory.

La Salle (6-24, 3-13) scored 41 points and shot 50 percent from the field, including 8 of 11 from 3-point range, in the opening half. The Explorers led by as many as 11 points in the third quarter before the Patriots began their comeback.

Cardano-Hillary scored 30 points or more for the fourth time in her career – all coming this season – and junior Alexsis Grate added 10 points to help fuel the rally. Mason jumped in front with 6:15 left in the fourth quarter and pushed the lead to 63-58 on Cardano-Hillary's layup with 2:52 remaining.

But the Explorers battled back, scoring five points in the last 64 seconds to set up an exciting final 30 seconds with each team trading huge 3-pointers.