PHILADELPHIA – Laura Ziegler nearly singlehandedly outscored Loyola Chicago on Sunday afternoon, scoring a program-high 43 points as the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team surged to its eighth-consecutive win in an 83-45 victory inside Hagan Arena.
 
Ziegler finished 17-26 (.654) from the field to become the second Hawk in program history to eclipse 40+ points, besting Dale Hodges' record of 42 points set against Temple on Jan. 31, 1990. Smith scored 17 points, the pair combining for 60 of the team's 83 points on the afternoon.
 
Laura Ziegler and Mackenzie Smith buried three-pointers in the opening three possessions to open on an 8-0 run, building an 11-point lead after the opening quarter. Ziegler scored 19 of the Hawk's 23 points in the second quarter, bolstering the lead after a 14-0 personal run surged St. Joe's to a 46-18 halftime lead.
 
The Hawks' offense continued to surge in the second half, led by the junior from Herlev, Denmark. Ziegler exited the game to a standing ovation in Hagan Arena as the student section chanted her name, the forward checking out for the final time after notching her 43^rd point of the contest to set the new program record early in the fourth quarter.
 
Another roar of applause fell through the crowd as Julia Nyström checked in for the first time this season, the senior sending the bench into raucous frenzy after finishing a left-handed drive for her first points of the year.
 
St. Joe's shot above 55 percent in the second half, tallying the eighth win on the bounce in an 83-45 rout.
 

BREAKING DOWN THE RECORD

• Ziegler's 43 points was the fourth time that a Hawk scored at least 40 points in the game, Dale Hodges eclipsing 40+ on three occasions. The mark also proved to be the second-most points scored by an Atlantic 10 player and the most since 1987.
• The 43 points ranks t-6^th for most points in a single game in the country.
• The Dane set career-highs with 17 field goals and 26 field goal attempts. Her 65.4 percent shooting from the field was tied for 14^th in program history among players who scored 30+ points in a game.
• The 17 made field goals tied for second-most in program history, while the 26 attempts tied for 10^th.
• Ziegler and Smith combined for 60 points, setting a new program record for points scored by a duo. The previous record was 58 points, tallied on two separate occasions by Hodges (32) and Kim Foley (26) against BYU (11/26/88) and by Ellen Shields (31) and Hodges (27) vs. St. Bonaventure (1/4/90).

 
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Ziegler's 43-point game broke her previous career-high of 30 points set earlier this season.
• Mackenzie Smith finished with 17 points on 7-10 shooting, adding four rebounds. The senior is eight boards shy of reaching 500 in her career.
• Emma Boslet (6) and Rhian Stokes (5) combined for 11 assists and had no turnovers on the game. The five assists marked a career-high for Stokes, while Boslet registered her 11^th game with at least four dimes.
• Ziegler, Aleah Snead and Gabby Casey all secured seven rebounds to lead the Hawks.
• Julia Nyström returned from injury for her first appearance on the season, finishing with four points in her season debut.
• The Hawks recorded 22 assists to just eight turnovers, six different Hawks recording multiple assists.
• St. Joe's finished with 32 field goals on just 55 attempts, shooting 58.2 percent from the field.
• SJU finished with more points in the paint (48) than Loyola Chicago's total (43).
• The Hawk defense forced 16 turnovers while limiting Loyola Chicago to just 18-57 (31.6%) from the field and 7-26 (26.9%) from three.
• The 45 points allowed is the fourth-consecutive game that SJU conceded fewer than 50 points.
• Eight wins is the longest win streak of the season for St. Joe's, while the Hawks move to 4-0 all-time against Loyola Chicago.

 
 
UP NEXT
The Hawks head to Richmond to take on the Spiders in a clash at the top of the Atlantic 10 standings. Tip is scheduled for 8 p.m. on Thursday, February 13 and can be streamed on Peacock.