SOLIN, Croatia – The Saint Joseph's women's basketball team opened its Croatia Tour with an emphatic win on Wednesday evening, taking down the Croatia All-Stars with an 86-27 victory.
 
With five scorers entering in double-digits, the Hawks were able to use a balanced offense to help jump into an early lead and never looked back.
 
The Hawks started as they would go on, knocking in the first basket from a baseline jumper by Gabby Casey. A pair of free throws would give St. Joe's a quick 6-0 lead.
 
Entering off the bench, Rhian Stokes saw her first action in her St. Joe's career, quickly making the most of it. After a pair of free throws, Stokes knocked down an open three to tally a quick 5-0 run for the Hawks, eventually extending the lead to 13-2.
 
Strong defense continued to fuel the Hawks' strong start, leading to a pair of triples only 15 seconds apart as both Laura Ziegler and Mackenzie Smith drained from distance to put the visitors up to 22-7. The defense continued to shine as Smith was able to help create a turnover with seconds on the clock in the opening quarter, leading to a layup on the other end for a 24-7 advantage after 10 minutes.
 
The Hawks opened the second frame with the first 17 points, holding the Croatia All-Stars scoreless the first five minutes of the frame to take a 41-7 lead. Knocking down her second triple of the half, Emma Boslet joined Paula Maurina with efforts from range to grow the advantage to 52-13. St. Joe's entered the half with a 40-point lead.
 
Both teams struggled to score out of the halftime break, exchanging eight points between the two teams over the first five minutes. St. Joe's kept the lead steady, heading into the final frame with a 63-22 lead.
 
Aleah Snead knocked down a pair of threes in the final frame, part of a 41.4 effort from the squad behind the arc. Julia Nyström also buried a three before Kaylie Griffin grabbed an offensive rebound, pulled the ball out of the paint and then burst past her defender for the final bucket of the game as St. Joe's took the 86-27 win to start its Croatian campaign.
 
Smith led all scorers with 16 points on the evening, while Laura Ziegler finished with 12 points and nine rebounds. Talya Brugler also added 12 points, Stokes and Maurina each finishing with double-digit points with 11 and 10, respectively.
 
The Hawks outrebound their opponents by 16, forcing the Croatia All-Stars into 31 turnovers. St. Joe's shot 29-64 from the field, limiting opponents to just 10-42 (23.8%) from the field.
 
St. Joe's returns to the court on Friday, August 9 to take on Croatia Select.