Saint Joseph's (20-10, 9-7 A-10) vs. Seton Hall (18-14, 10-10 BIG EAST)
Thursday, March 16 | 7:00 p.m. | Walsh Gymnasium | South Orange, N.J.
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Saint Joseph's: Roster | Schedule | Stats | Game Notes
Seton Hall: Roster | Schedule | Stats | Game Notes
SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. - The Saint Joseph's women's basketball team prepare for the opening round of the WNIT tournament on Thursday evening, heading to Seton Hall to take on the Pirates in a 7 p.m. tip.
Saint Joseph's enters its 12th WNIT appearance on Thursday afternoon when it takes on Seton Hall on the road. It is the second-straight WNIT that the Hawks have traveled to face the Pirates in the opening round, also doing so in the 2017-18 postseason.
Under Coach Griffin, the Hawks are 8-12 in the postseason play, including a 7-10 record in the WNIT. 11 of the 12 career WNIT postseason apperances has came under the tenure of Griffin. St. Joe's recorded its first 20-win season since the 2013-14 season, its first winning season since a 19-15 record in 2017-18.
The Hawks are coming off a quarterfinal apperance against Saint Louis, falling to the eventual Atlantic 10 Champions after beating Davidson in the second round. Both Mackenzie Smith and Talya Brugler scored in double figures in each of the A-10 Tournament games. Brugler has now posted double-figures in 27 of the 30 games on the year, 12 of the last 14 games for Smith.
Brugler has posted the second-best field goal percentage for the Hawks since the start of the century and second-most points per game since 2001-02 with 16.7 points.
Smith and Brugler have also posted three of the four highest scoring outputs of the last two decades, Smith with games with 38 and 31 points and a 34-point performance from Brugler.
Katie Jekot sits eighth all-time in the SJU assists chart and 19th all-time in points.
Scouting The Pirates
Seton Hall was 2-1 on the season against common opponents between the Hawks, the lone loss coming to VCU (61-62) in November. The Pirates then cruised through Rider (78-40) before knocking off Fordham (78-72) on the road.
Seton Hall is one of the BIG EAST's most dynamic offensive teams, scoring a third-best 71.8 ppg amongst in its league. The Pirates make the most of their free throw opportunities, knocking down at a clip of 78.5% - ranking 13th in the country. SHU takes care of the basketball while sharing at a high rate, ranking in the top 40 in both turnovers per game (13.3) and assist-to-turnover ratio (1.12).
Lauren Park-Lane leads the Pirate Squad, scoring 20.4 points per game (17th in NCAA). Park-Lane also leads the team in assists per game (6.4), dishing the ninth most helpers in the country entering the matchup while boasting a 2.08 assist-turnover ratio. Sidney Cooks pitches in 15.7 points per game while adding a team-best 5.8 rebounds per game. Sha'Lynn Hagans has recorded 47 steals on the year while posting 8.7 points. In just 20 minutes per game off the bench, Amari Wright has proved a menace to opposition with a team-high 57 steals, fifth most per game in the BIG EAST.
Postseason Adventure
For the first time since 2017-18, the Hawks are in postseason play after receiving a bid in the WNIT. The last time the Hawks played in the tournament: a 75-57 win at Seton Hall in the opening round. Coach Griffin has now made 11 WNIT appearances and 13 total postseason appearances in her 22 years on Hawk Hill, accounting for more than half of SJU's postseason bids in program history.
A-10 Tourney Spurned
After earning an opening round bye as the 6-seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, the Hawks took care of business in the second round of the tournament with a comfortable win over #11 Davidson. Making the second-straight quarterfinal appearances, the Hawks looked to repeat the regular season win against Saint Louis for a semifinal appearance. However, the #3 Billikens found their rhythm, defeating the Hawks en route to an Atlantic 10 Championship to spurn any NCAA Tournament opportunity for SJU.
Freshman Phenom
Laura Ziegler looks to stamp a freshman season for the books in program history as the rookie already holds the all-time freshman record for rebounds in a season. Ziegler is just five rebounds away from entering into the top 10 all-time in SJU history for rebounds in a season and one block away from another top 10 list.
Conference Recognition
St. Joe's enters the tournament off the back of the Atlantic 10 Conference awards, where three Hawks earned All-Conference Team honors. Laura Ziegler, the second-straight Atlantic 10 Rookie of the Year, made Third Team All-Conference and All-Rookie Team honors alongside being the best rookie in the league. Mackenzie Smith joined Ziegler on the Third Team while Talya Brugler was named to the First Team as the first Hawk since Natasha Cloud in 2014-15 to do so. The three Hawks were the first time since 2003-04 that three found their way on the conference team.
