CEDAR CITY, Utah – A dominant display from the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team was capped by a career-high 30-point display from Laura Ziegler as the Hawks cruised to an 82-53 win over Southern Utah inside the America First Event Center on Wednesday evening.
 
With the victory, the Hawks improved to 4-0 on the season, with all four wins coming by more than 10 points apiece.
 
FIRST QUARTER

• Emma Boslet assisted on the first four made baskets for the Hawks, helping St. Joe's climb out to an early 14-2 lead.
• Ziegler's second three-pointer of the quarter gave her an early 10 points to push the Hawk advantage to 17-4.
• Gabby Casey scored the next seven points for the Hawks, highlighted by a corner three to extend the lead to 24-6.
• St. Joe's ended the opening 10 minutes with a 27-14 advantage, knocking down all five of their three-point attempts.

 
SECOND QUARTER

• Southern Utah scored nine of the first 14 points of the second frame, reducing the host's deficit to single digits three minutes into the quarter.
• St. Joe's responded with a 16-2 run over the next five minutes as Talya Brugler and Ziegler each scored seven points in the span to grow the advantage to 48-25.
• The teams traded buckets over the final two minutes of the half before Ava Uhrich knocked down a fadeaway jumper with seconds on the clock as the Hawks entered the break with a 51-29 lead.

 
THIRD QUARTER

• St. Joe's began the second half with an 8-0 run over the first five minutes, taking a 59-29 score into the media timeout.
• The Hawks extended the run to 10-0 before going on a scoreless run of over four minutes. The Thunderbirds took advantage of the cold shooting with an 8-0 run of their own to end the quarter.

 
FOURTH QUARTER

• The teams traded points over the course of the first two minutes of the frame before a 4-0 run from the Hawks pushed the advantage to 28 points. During the span, Boslet broke her newly registered record with her 11^th assist of the night before Casey knocked down her 20^th point of the game to set a career-high.
• Back-to-back assists from Boslet to Ziegler ended their nights with Ziegler collecting her 30^th point, while Boslet stamped a career-high with her 13^th assist.
• Meja Jägerskog and Rhian Stokes each finished with buckets at the rim before Aleah Snead capped off the scoring to give St. Joe's an 82-53 road win.

 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Eight of Boslet's career-high 13 assists came in the first half. Boslet's night tied her for fifth in single-game history at St. Joe's. The Edison, N.J. native matched head coach Cindy Griffin's career high set against Arizona (December 28, 1990).
• Ziegler set her career-high with 30 points on 13-19 shooting. The Danish forward added 10 rebounds for her third double-double in the first four games of the season.
• Ziegler's double-double was the 24^th of her career, now just six shy of Maureen Costello and Susan Moran for fourth place in school history.
• Brugler finished with 18 points and five rebounds, the senior going 5-5 from the free throw line to remain perfect on the season.
• Casey scored 10 points in each half to set a new career high of 20 points, besting her previous mark of 16 against Penn in her rookie season. The sophomore added three rebounds, three steals, two blocks and two assists and finished 8-10 (80.0%) from the floor.
• Mackenzie Smith (1,194 points) surpassed Stephanie Graff (2000-04) to move into 17^th all-time in scoring.
• St. Joe's finished 33-59 (.559) from the field while knocking down 8-16 from distance. The Hawks were 19-29 (.655) in the first half and 8-11 (.727) from three.
• The Hawks assisted on 23 of 33 made baskets after entering the contest ranked sixth in the country with 22.7 assists per game.
• Saint Joseph's won the rebound battle 36-29, scoring 18 points on 10 offensive rebounds.
• Southern Utah finished 24-62 (.387) from the floor and 1-14 (.071) from three-point range.
• St. Joe's is now 3-3 in program history against teams from Utah.

 
UP NEXT
St. Joe's faces a quick turnaround, heading to Salt Lake City to take on Utah on Friday, November 22. Tip is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time, 9 p.m. ET on ESPN+.