PHILADELPHIA – The Saint Joseph's women's basketball team continued to roll in the early stages of Atlantic 10 play, defeating George Washington 67-47 inside Hagan Arena on Wednesday evening.
The Hawks move to 13-1 (2-0 A-10) on the season, continuing the second-best start in program history. GW falls to 7-7 and 0-2 in the Atlantic 10.
FIRST QUARTER
- Both teams traded early punches with each other, the visitors extending an early lead by as many as four before the Hawks tied the game at 9-9.
- Julia Nyström gave the Hawks a 12-9 lead with a three out of the media timeout, the Revolutionaries countering with a three of their own on the other end.
- A three-minute drought from GW allowed St. Joe's to regain an advantage, scoring six of the final eight points of the frame to take an 18-14 lead after one.
SECOND QUARTER
- The first five baskets of the second quarter were traded by each team, the Hawks showing an answer for all of GW's questions over the first four minutes.
- However, the visitors would go on a quick 6-0 spurt to take their first lead in nearly 15 minutes.
- Laura Ziegler and Talya Brugler exchanged buckets to quickly regain control of the lead.
- An intuitive move to the basket saw Aleah Snead grab her first bucket of the game, Chloe Welch finishing an old-fashioned three-point play on the next possession ensuring the Hawks the final five points of the quarter to take a 31-27 lead into the half.
THIRD QUARTER
- GW would open the second half with a three-pointer to cut the deficit to one, but it would be the Crimson and Gray that would take advantage of the early stages.
- Consecutive buckets by Ziegler would extend the lead to 35-30, the largest advantage from either team to that point.
- Brugler added an and-one and a basket on the next possession before finding Chloe Welch at the corner, the graduate transfer burying the three to extend the run to 12-0 and forcing a GW timeout.
- Four more points from Ziegler ended the run at 16-0, Maren Durant finally ending the drought to cut the deficit to 47-32.
- Welch would hit her second three of the quarter and Brugler added a bucket as time expired to give the Hawks a 21-5 advantage in the quarter and a 52-32 lead.
FOURTH QUARTER
- Brugler would extend the Hawk lead to as many as 22 points early in the fourth quarter, but the visitors would take one last shot at cutting the deficit.
- An 8-0 run over the span of just over two minutes for GW forced a timeout from head coach Cindy Griffin as the lead was trimmed to 56-42.
- The Hawks responded with eight-consecutive points of their own, re-establishing the healthy margin and holding off the Revolutionaries to move to 2-0 in the early stages of conference play, defeating GW 67-47.
GAME NOTES
- Talya Brugler finished with a game-high 21 points on an elite 8-10 shooting from the field, knocking down all five of her free throws. Her 21 points jumps her three spots in the all-time scoring list, moving to 22nd with 1,069 points.
- Laura Ziegler finished two rebounds shy of a double-double, adding 18 points and eight boards to her productive night.
- Chloe Welch filled the stat sheet with 16 points, eight rebounds, four assists and a steal in the victory.
- Emma Boslet added five assists without turning the ball over and secured four rebounds off the bench.
- The Hawks finished the night 26-52 from the floor, finishing with at least 50% field goal percentage for the second-straight game. St. Joe's capitalized with 24 points off of 17 GW turnovers, compared to just five points from the visitors off of 13 turnovers.
- GW finished 18-47 (38.3%) from the field and just 3-14 (21.4%) from deep.
- St. Joe's has won six of the last seven matchups with George Washington, moving to 36-32 overall over the team from D.C.
UP NEXT
St. Joe's concludes a short homestand when Richmond rolls to town on Saturday, January 6. Tip is scheduled for 2 p.m.
