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St. Joe's women aiming to get back to winning ways

10/26/2021, 11:30am EDT
By Ty Daubert

Ty Daubert (@TyDaubert)

(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2021-22 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 9. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Cindy Griffin (above) has been the St. Joe's head coach for 20 seasons. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

With an experienced set of upperclassmen and some interesting freshmen at Saint Joseph’s, head coach Cindy Griffin’s Hawks hope 2021-2022 can be the year they get things back on track.

The program has seen both regular and postseason success since Griffin took over the St. Joe’s women’s squad in 2001. The Hawks finished with a winning record in 14 of her first 17 seasons at the helm, with 10 WNIT appearances and two in the NCAA Tournament — an automatic bid in 2013 after winning their third Atlantic 10 Conference championship in school history, and a return the next year when they advanced to the second round for the sixth time.

However, St. Joe’s hasn’t had a winning season since the 2017-2018 campaign.For the upperclassmen on the team, getting back over .500 would be a significant accomplishment and a potential sign of better days to come.

“Coach has a winning program,” junior guard Kaliah Henderson said Thursday at St. Joe’s media day. “We’ve been slacking the last few years, and hopefully this year we can bring it back up.”

On a roster with five seniors and five freshmen — Griffin noted her group is “top-heavy and bottom-heavy” — this Hawks team will receive contributions from players of all classes. 

Henderson, a native of Tampa, Florida, was the team’s leading scorer with 11.4 points per game. Point guard Katie Jekot, one of three graduate students on the team, was behind her with 9.6 points and led the team in assists per game with 4.1. Junior Gabby Smalls averaged a team-high 6.9 rebounds per game last season in a reserve role, and could be poised for more responsibility this year.

“I feel like there’s a lot of leadership,” Jekot said. “We do have a lot of freshmen, but we have a lot of leadership that’s helping the freshmen adjust to the team.”


Katie Jekot (above) is one of three graduate students on the Hawks' roster. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Of course, the leadership starts at the top with eight upperclassmen, all of whom have on-court experience. Nine of 10 St. Joe’s returnees, including all eight juniors and seniors, played at least 14 of 17 games and averaged at least nine minutes per game last season.

Guards Mary Sheehan and Alayna Gribble, the other grad students, saw major minutes for the Hawks last season, as Sheehan started 11 of 17 games and Gribble averaged 8.2 points in 20.5 minutes per game, mostly off the bench.

Also back in the rotation: fourth-year senior forwards Lovin Marsicano (4.2 ppg) and Katie Mayock (6.4), junior forward Jaden Walker (1.9) and sophomore guard Olivia Mullins (2.1). Sophomore guard Emma Boslet, the other returner on the roster, played in three games a year ago.

The freshman class is made up of forward Talya Brugler, guard Kaylie Griffin — Cindy’s daughter — forward Laila Fair and two international players, guards Mackenzie Smith and Julia Nyström from Canada and Sweden, respectively.

With this selection of newcomers and experience at the top of the roster, St. Joe’s will aim to clean up a few aspects of its game following a 7-10 season last year. The top priority will be tightening up the defensive mechanics and positioning. 

The Hawks’ foul troubles cost them dearly at the line, as their opponents shot 21 free throws per game in comparison to SJU’s 12.7. Closing that gap could pay dividends throughout this season.

“One thing that stands out most to me is that we foul too much,” Griffin said. “We just foul. I mean, I said earlier the same thing (as) last year: ‘Guys, if you could play 30 minutes, and you’re productive in these 20 minutes…with 10 more minutes, how much more productive can we be?’”

Elimination of live-ball turnovers and knocking down more shots from the floor will be other keys to success for St. Joe’s. 


The Hawks are hoping freshmen like Mackenzie Smith (above) can improve the team's outside shooting. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

The Hawks shot 29.6% from 3-point range last season, ranking 10th of 14 A-10 teams. Jekot was the team’s leading 3-point shooter at 34.8% on 5.2 attempts per game. No other player with at least one attempt per game eclipsed 31%. The addition of shooters such as Smith and Nyström, who have experience shooting from a FIBA distance, should help as the NCAA moves the women’s 3-point line back to 22 feet, 1.75 inches this season from 20 feet, 9 inches. 

Finding the way back to success won’t be easy for the Hawks, as they compete in a tough A-10 Conference with a number of teams potentially vying for the title. Dayton won the conference tournament in 2020, and finished with the best A-10 record at 12-1 last season. VCU went on a run in the 2021 conference tournament to defeat UMass in the title game for its first A-10 championship. Rhode Island is another program that has emerged as a contender after securing its first winning record since 2014-2015 last season, going 11-8 overall and 11-4 in the conference.

“You’ve got UMass, they did really well last year. Dayton always does really well, VCU, really good team.” Jekot said. “We have a lot of good teams in the A-10, so we’ve just got to go out there and play hard every game.”

There was once a time when St. Joe’s was a contender in the conference year-in and year-out, and Griffin is confident SJU has the core to make its way toward that position again. 

Managing a winning season in the coach’s 21st at Hawk Hill for the first time in four years could be the ideal stepping stone on the way there.

“We’ll be back,” she said. “Don’t you worry. We’ll be back.”


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