PHILADELPHIA – A second half surge vaulted the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team to a 77-49 win over Big 5 rival Penn on Tuesday evening inside The Palestra.
St. Joe's outscored the Quakers 44-24 in the second half as the Hawks move to 3-0 on the season and 1-0 in the Big 5. Penn falls to 1-1, 0-1 in Big 5 action.
FIRST QUARTER
- St. Joe's connected on the first two baskets to take an early 4-0 lead. Despite the quick start, the Hawks went 1-8 over the next four and a half minutes as Penn was able to tie the game at 8-8 at the media timeout.
- The Hawks shot just 6-18 (33.3%) from the floor over the course of the first 10 minutes, but a backdoor cut in the final 20 seconds from Gabby Casey gave the Hawks a 15-14 lead after the first stanza.
SECOND QUARTER
- Penn regained the lead early in the second quarter, but a near immediate response came through Paula Maurina. The senior slashed backdoor, Laura Ziegler finding her for a wide open layup.
- Gabby Casey scored the next four points for the Hawks, Ziegler then taking her turn connecting on a three from the wing to put the Hawks up six.
- Penn cut the lead to 30-25 as time was expiring, but a prayer from Chloe Welch was answered as a heave from half banked in as the buzzer sounded to give St. Joe's a 33-25 halftime lead.
THIRD QUARTER
- Mackenzie Smith started the third quarter by putting on her defender on the floor, stepping back and firing from deep to put the lead into double-digits.
- After quick baskets by the Quakers cut the deficit to seven, St. Joe's grabbed nine of the next 11 points to open up the contest. A 7-0 spurt later in the quarter extended the Hawk lead to as many as 17 points, taking a 52-39 lead into the final frame.
FOURTH QUARTER
- Six different scorers got involved in an 18-1 run to start the fourth quarter, St. Joe's taking a 30-point lead midway through the frame.
- Bridget Monaghan and Kaylie Griffin scored their first points in the Crimson and Gray, while Emirson Devenie grabbed her first bucket of the season as the Hawks walked out 77-49 victors inside The Palestra.
GAME NOTES
- Laura Ziegler posted her 10th career double-double, scoring 18 points with 14 rebounds in the win.
- Gabby Casey exploded with 10 of her 16 points in the second half, playing in 17 minutes in just her third game of her career.
- Talya Brugler put in a quiet 10 points while dishing five assists, a new career-high. Julia Nyström also added five assists in the win.
- Chloe Welch (13pts/6rebs) and Mackenzie Smith (10pts/5rebs) both landed in double-digit scoring for the second-straight game.
- As a team, the Hawks had their best shooting night in the early stages of the season by knocking down 28-55 (50.9%) from the floor and 8-16 (50.0%) from deep. St. Joe's knocked down 13-of-15 from the line for 86.7%.
- The defense remained stingy against the Quakers, forcing Penn to just 20-63 (31.7%) from the field and 2-21 (9.5%) from deep.
- SJU held a 40-32 advantage in points in the paint and a 23-3 advantage in bench points.
- The Hawks have held the lead for more than 32 minutes in each of the first three games, leading for 37:26 on the night.
- All 13 players have played in the opening three games, the average margin of victory nearly 24 points per game.
- The Hawks have won three-straight over Penn and improve the record over the Quakers to 43-5 all-time…Coach Griffin is now 17-5 against Penn.
UP NEXT
The Hawks stay local for another matchup against a Philly foe, taking on Drexel on Sunday, November 19 at 4:30 p.m.
