PHILADELPHIA – Saint Joseph's women's basketball made its first step on the way to trying to claim the Hawk Classic title, winning the opening round matchup over New Hampshire in a 72-54 victory on Wednesday afternoon in Hagan Arena.
 
St. Joe's broke double-digit wins as the Hawks move to 10-1 on the season, New Hampshire falling to 5-7 on the year.
 
 
FIRST QUARTER

• Talya Brugler helped kickstart an early 7-0 run for the Hawks to start the contest, knocking down back-to-back attempts after Mackenzie Smith opened the game with a triple.
• The Wildcats brought the game within 16-13, but Brugler answered with an old-fashioned three-point play at the basket. Paula Maurina added a strong offensive rebound and put back to give the Hawks an eight-point lead.
• Brugler once again found her number called as the shot clock was winding down, quickly releasing for just her second three-pointer of the season. On the ensuing Hawk possession, with the clock winding down, Gabby Casey led the transition to find a wide-open Emma Boslet. The junior guard had no time to take a dribble, firing five feet beyond the three-point line and splashing home to give the Hawks a nine-point lead after the first quarter.

 
SECOND QUARTER

• The Hawks opened the quarter on another 7-0 run over the first 5:50 of the frame, Laura Ziegler with five of the seven for St. Joe's to extend the lead to 16.
• New Hampshire fought back, scoring 11 of the next 13 points as the Wildcats trimmed the deficit to 36-29.
• St. Joe's outscored the visitors 5-3 over the final minute and a half to take a 41-32 lead into the locker room.

 
THIRD QUARTER

• Two three-point plays for the Hawks opened the scoring in the third quarter, first coming from a three from Ziegler before Chloe Welch finished at the basket for an and-one.
• Early fouls from the visitors gave the Hawks eight free throws over the quarter, St. Joe's knocking down seven of the eight freebies.
• SJU took a 56-44 advantage headed into the final frame.

 
FOURTH QUARTER

• After an opening basket from New Hampshire in the final frame, Brugler scored the next eight points in the game to extend the lead to 64-48.
• The lead would stay above 15 the remainder of the game as St. Joe's earned its second-straight win with a 72-54 victory.

 
GAME NOTES

• Talya Brugler finished with a game-high 24 points, surpassing the 1,000 career point mark in the third quarter. Brugler became the 29^th Hawk to reach that mark, sitting at 27^th in program history with 1,013 points.
• Laura Ziegler added 17 points on the afternoon, held to a season-low three rebounds.
• Both Chloe Welch and Julia Nyström both added eight points in the win, Welch finishing with a game-high eight rebounds.
• The Hawks move to 10-1 for the second-consecutive season. St. Joe's is now 3-1 all-time against the Wildcats, 2-0 against the visitors at the Hawk Classic.
• SJU shot 43.8% from the field, only taking 48 shots on the day. The Hawks finished 9-24 (37.5%) from deep, half of the attempts from the field coming from the three-point line.
• New Hampshire finished 23-57 (40.4%) from the field but was efficient from behind the arc with a 8-15 (53.3%) clip. The Wildcats were held without a free throw, while SJU connected on 21-24 from the line for an 87.5%.
• For the fourth time this season, the Hawks didn't trail at any point in the game. St. Joe's led for 39:14 of the game.

 
UP NEXT
St. Joe's meets UAB in the championship game of the Hawk Classic on Thursday, Dec. 21 at 1 p.m. The Blazers defeated Wagner 73-33 in the other semifinal to book a spot in the title game.