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PHILADELPHIA – Coming off of a 63-61 home win over George Washington this past Sunday, the hot-shooting Saint Joseph's women's basketball squad (4-1, 2-1 A-10) hits the road for a pair of contest match-ups this weekend, first heading to UMass (10-3, 6-2 A-10) this Friday, January 29. Opening tip at the Mullins Center in Amherst, Mass. is set for 1:00 p.m. and will be streamed nationally on ESPN+.

SJU holds a 50-12 all-time series lead over UMass and is 2-2 over the last three seasons after dropping both contests last season. In the most recent match-up, a 51-47 home loss on February 26, 2020, the Hawks tore off on a 7-0 run with 1:35 remaining in regulation to inch to within four, but time would expire on the Crimson and Gray despite Katie Jekot's 17-point day.

The Hawks will then head to Rhode Island (5-5, 5-2 A-10) on Sunday, January 31, with opening tip set for 1:00 p.m. at the Thomas M. Ryan Center in Kingston, R.I. That game will also be streamed nationally on ESPN+.

SJU holds a 56-8 all-time series lead over URI and is 2-1 over the last three seasons. The Hawks dropped the most recent match-up by a final score of 49-47 in Hagan Arena on January 15, 2020; Jekot finished with a team-high 17 points, with 13 coming in the final 7:15, and a game-high four steals while Gabby Smalls added 12 points and six rebounds.

SJU was predicted to finish 13th in the A-10 this year, according to the 2020-21 A-10 Women's Basketball Preseason Coaches Poll conducted by the league's 14 head coaches and announced on November 9. UMass was predicted to finish seventh, with Rhode Island slated 11th.

Smalls paces the squad with a double-double, averaging 11.0 points per game and a team-high 10.0 rebounds per game, while graduate student guard Alayna Gribble is averaging a team-high 16.3 points per game (13 three-pointers) through three contests. Sophomore forward Jaden Walker leads the squad with six total blocks and ties for second in rebounds per game (4.6) while Jekot has been SJU's top facilitator, dropping 26 dimes so far for an average of just over five assists per game. 

Game Notes:
LAST TIME OUT: Graduate student guard Alayna Gribble and junior guard Katie Jekot combined for 31 points to lead SJU to a 63-61 victory over GW on Sunday, January 24. With the win on their home court, the Hawks improved to a perfect 4-0 this season when playing in Hagan. SJU poured in a season-high 12 three-pointers, shooting 46 percent (12-of-26) from deep.

Gribble didn't miss a beat in her first game back since December 15 as she led all scorers with 17 points, shooting 55 percent from both the field (6-of-11) and from deep (5-of-9). Jekot broke though with a season-high 14 points (5-of-9 FG, 4-of-7 3FG). Junior forward Katie Mayock played a career-high 35 minutes off the bench and stepped up big in place of an injured Gabby Smalls. Mayock recorded a season-high eight points, season-high six rebounds, season-high three steals, and season-high two blocks and dished out a career-high six assists on the day. Junior forward Lovin Marsicano added nine points (3-of-7 FG, 2-of-5 3FG) while sophomore guard Kaliah Henderson totaled eight points (4-of-5 FG) and five rebounds.

CAPTAINS OF THE SHIP
Senior guard Mary Sheehan and junior guard Katie Jekot have been selected team captains for the 2020-21 women's basketball season. Sheehan enters her second year as team captain after serving as the squad's lone captain for the 2019-20 season while Jekot, the squad's 2019-20 Most Valuable Player, joins Sheehan in a captaincy role this year.

"Mary and Katie have great leadership and communication skills, an incredible work ethic, and a great pulse for our team," said head coach Cindy Griffin. "These two certainly embody 'The Hawk Will Never Die' mentality!"

FIVE LETTERS... KJ MVP
The only Hawk to start all 29 games last season en route to 2019-20 Most Valuable Player honors, Jekot led the squad in scoring (10.6 ppg), field goals made (110), three-point field goals made (44), minutes played (31.2 mpg), and total steals (39) and totaled 17 double-digit games in 2019-20. Jekot dropped three or more three-pointers in a game six times and recorded a season-high 20 points, including four three-pointers, and career-high 11 rebounds in the Hawks' home win over Sacred Heart.

BIG 5 SISTERS
Despite hailing from the Cumberland County, Philadelphia basketball runs in the Jekot family as Saint Joseph's junior Katie Jekot has an older sister, Kelly, who starred for Villanova '20 (and now plays for Penn State) and a younger sister, Julie, who has committed to La Salle in time for the 2021-22 season. Despite tearing her ACL in her first season as a Hawk in 2017-18, Katie bounced back and went on to aid Kelly in her own ACL recovery.

FOUR YEARS FOR THE CRIMSON AND GRAY
Senior guards Lula Roig and Mary Sheehan are the only two members of the 13-player roster who are in their fourth active seasons in 2020-21. Roig has appeared in 88 games over her first three seasons and was SJU's starting point guard in 27 games last year, averaging 7.0 points per game, 5.0 rebounds per game, and 3.0 assists per game; she went on to finish as SJU's season leader in assists (80). Sheehan appeared in 69 games over her first three seasons; she played in all 29 games with 26 starts last year and averaged 5.4 points per game, 3.4 rebounds per game, and 1.0 assists per game in 29.1 minutes per contest, ranking second on the squad in three-pointers made (19).

LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
Senior guard Mary Sheehan has loved Saint Joseph's University since she was born. Her father, Dennis, served as The Hawk mascot for three seasons from 1982-83 through 1984-85 and graduated from SJU with a degree in accounting; he remains invested in the program as a season ticketholder.

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER
Junior forward Katie Mayock played in all 60 games over the first two years of her collegiate career. Her mother, Alix (Burns), was a four-year standout at Saint Joseph's from 1985-89, helping the Hawks to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and two Big 5 titles.

ALL OF THE LOVIN
Junior forward Lovin Marsicano's given name is "Elizabeth," but she goes strictly by "Lovin." Why, you might ask? When Marsicano was two years old, she ate a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup... and ended up being allergic. After a trip to the hospital, her mother said, "She just needs a little bit of lovin'" and the rest, as they say, is history!

SOPHOMORE STANDOUTS
When asked what impressed her the most in the fall preseason, head coach Cindy Griffin answered with three words: the sophomore class. Guard Kaliah Henderson, guard/forward Jaden Walker, and forward Gabby Smalls have improved significantly, and Griffin expects the three of them to shine in their second seasons on Hawk Hill.

NEWCOMERS PART I, THE TRANSFER TRIO
University of Pittsburgh graduate transfer Alayna Gribble (Pittsburgh, Pa./Norwin), Binghamton University graduate transfer Olivia Ramil (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton/Georgetown University), and Lafayette College graduate transfer Alexis Santarelli (Philadelphia, Pa./Bishop Eustace Prep) don the Crimson and Gray this year. All three started at their previous stops, and head coach Cindy Griffin believes their experience will help the Hawks immediately.

NEWCOMERS PART II, THE FRESHMAN PAIR
North Jersey point guards Emma Boslet (Edison, N.J./Saint Thomas Aquinas High School) and Olivia Mullins (Somerset, N.J./Rutgers Preparatory High School) are SJU's two rookie Hawks this season. Boslet is the all-time leading scorer at Saint Thomas Aquinas High School between both the boys' AND girls' basketball programs with 1,948 points while two-time All-Skyland Conference First Teamer Mullins was a three-year starting point guard for a Rutgers Prep program that went 102-18 over her career. Both were named 2019-20 McDonalds High School All-American nominees.

HAWKS COACHING TREE
Head coach Cindy Griffin coached three of her staff members on Hawk Hill in director of player development Susan Lavin (nee Moran '02), assistant coach Katie Kuester '12, and director of operations Sarah Fowler (nee Fairbanks '16). Lavin is one of the most highly-decorated players in SJU basketball history and remains the school's all-time scoring leader with 2,340 points recorded from 1998-2002. A starter in all 122 games of her career, she is the only player to lead the Hawks in scoring and rebounding in all four seasons and was inducted into the SJU Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008 and Big 5 Hall of Fame in 2009. After 16 years spent as Griffin's head assistant, Lavin is in her first season away from the bench. Kuester drained 167 three-pointers and Fowler poured in over 1,000 points during their careers on Hawk Hill.  
 
GRIFFIN INKS FOUR FOR 2021-22 CAMPAIGN
Four recruits from the Class of 2021 have signed with head coach Cindy Griffin's program and will arrive on Hawk Hill in time for the 2021-22 season:
     • Forward - Talya Brugler (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area)
     • Forward - Laila Fair (Somerset, N.J./Stuart Country Day)
     • Guard - Kaylie Griffin (Conshohocken, Pa./Gwynedd Mercy)
     • Guard - Julia Nyström (Lund, Sweden/IK Eos Lund)

NOTABLE ALUM, NATASHA CLOUD '15
Dropping 18 points in the Washington Mystics' 89-78 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 5 of the 2019 Women's National Basketball Association Finals on October 10, former Saint Joseph's guard Natasha Cloud '15 became a WNBA champion. Cloud, drafted 15th overall by the Mystics in the 2015 WNBA draft, started all nine playoff games at the point and averaged 13.1 points per game, 6.2 assists per game, and 3.4 rebounds per game in a team-leading 34.2 minutes per game during Washington's run to its first WNBA title in franchise history.

In June of 2020, Cloud announced that she would forgo the 2020 WNBA season, as she wanted to be on the front lines and focus on social reform. On December 1 of 2020, Cloud was named to the #ForbesUnder30 Class of 2021.

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