PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's women's basketball team won its sixth game in a row on Saturday afternoon inside Hagan Arena, receiving a total team effort in a dominant 68-42 victory over Davidson.
 
Four double-digit scorers and three players with 10+ rebounds helped the Hawks move to 19-2 (8-1 Atlantic 10) to continue a historic start to the campaign. Davidson falls to 14-6 on the year, 4-5 in A-10 action.
 
 
FIRST QUARTER

• Both sides started cold, Laura Ziegler scoring the first basket of the game after nearly two-and-a-half scoreless minutes. The Hawk defense continued to hound the Wildcat offense, holding them off the board for over four minutes to grow a 5-0 lead.
• A pair of buckets from Chloe Welch and Talya Brugler added to the advantage later in the period to make it 11-4 in favor of the hosts.
• Davidson cut the deficit to three, but with 10 seconds to play, Mackenzie Smith went coast-to-coast as the junior beat her defender and layed it in before the buzzer sounded to give the Hawks a 15-9 lead.

 
SECOND QUARTER

• Paula Maurina and Aleah Snead started the second quarter with paint points, finishing clinically under the rim to quickly build a 10-point advantage.
• The lead extended to 11 points after Welch buried a three from the wing against her former team, Brugler connecting on a three the next time down to counter a three-pointer from the Wildcats.
• St. Joe's scored the final four points of the quarter, taking a 37-24 lead into the half.

 
THIRD QUARTER

• Smith opened the third quarter with an old-fashioned three-point play, the Hawks again holding Davidson out of the basket for the first two minutes.
• Laura Ziegler secured an offensive rebound, dribbling back outside of the arc to set up the offense before firing from distance after no one came out with her to force a Davidson timeout with the Hawks up 17 points.
• Davidson responded with its best run of the game, holding the Hawks scoreless for nearly four minutes to earn an 8-0 run and cut the deficit to single digits.
• The Wildcats were able to keep the deficit within 10, heading into the final frame with St. Joe's leading 47-38.

 
FOURTH QUARTER

• Saint Joseph's quickly took control of the game, starting the fourth with a 13-0 run while holding Davidson to five minutes without a bucket to lead by 22 points. Four different scorers led the charge, Ziegler and Brugler combining for eight of the 13 points before Davidson's Issy Morgan ended the run with what was the only field goal of the quarter for the Wildcats.
• Despite the run ending, the Hawks started a new one as four different scorers again pitched in to another 8-0 run highlighted by Gabby Casey's 10^th rebound of the night after securing an offensive board and finishing on the second attempt on her career night.
• St. Joe's limited Davidson to just four points in the fourth quarter, carving out a 68-42 final score to extend the win streak to six games and push the Hawks to sole possession of first place in the Atlantic 10 for the night.

 
 
GAME NOTES

• Talya Brugler led all scorers with 19 points, returning to double-digits after her 14-game conference streak of 10+ points was upended against St. Bonaventure.
• Laura Ziegler finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds, her fifth-consecutive double-double and her 10^th on the season.Ziegler added two steals and two assists in the win.
• Mackenzie Smith also tallied a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, her second of her career. Smith's first double-double came last season at Dayton – joining Ziegler as the last time two Hawks had a double-double in the same game.
• Gabby Casey had a career-day on the glass, also finishing with double-digit rebounds with a game-high 11 boards in just 21 minutes. The 11 rebounds are more than double of her previous best of five rebounds, the freshman adding four points, two assists and a steal.
• Chloe Welch finished with 13 points on just six field goals in an efficient day against her former team. Welch spent five seasons at Davidson before transferring to St. Joe's collecting 984 points with the Wildcats as St. Joe's celebrated her 1,000^th career point with both of her teams.
• The Hawks finished 26-55 from the field to shoot at a 47.3% clip, outscoring the Wildcats by a 38-14 margin inside the paint. St. Joe's knocked down 13-16 (81.3%) of attempts from the free throw line.
• Davidson shot just 15-50 (30.0%) on the afternoon, suffering a 43-23 rebound margin in favor of the Hawks.
• St. Joe's moves to 12-1 all-time against Davidson, 5-0 at home.

 
 
UP NEXT
St. Joe's travels for the first time to Loyola Chicago, meeting the Ramblers in a 7 p.m. ET tip on Wednesday, January 31.