City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The formula for success this season for the Saint Joseph’s women is simple enough: the forwards lead, and the guards supplement. 

The frontcourt duo of Talya Brugler and Laura Ziegler are the biggest reason the Hawks were picked second in the Atlantic 10, the pair of returning starters each earning preseason All-Conference honors. Everybody in Cindy Griffin’s program knows that everything on the court starts with that pair, and goes from there.

For Tuesday night’s season opener against Rider, that formula worked about as well as two plus two. On a night that wasn’t the Hawks’ best shooting performance from outside, Brugler and Ziegler took over inside, leading St. Joe’s to a 71-49 win.

The Hawks’ pair combined for 41 points and 18 rebounds, an inside presence the Broncs couldn’t match. It felt like one of the pair was putting the ball through the hoop every other possession — whether it was running the floor in transition, catching and finishing around the bucket or knocking down mid-range jumpers. 

“These two did a terrific job of finding each other and finding their teammates and their teammates found them,” Griffin said afterwards, Brugler and Ziegler flanking her at the post-game press conference. “Very proud of these guys today.”

Brugler had a game-high 22 points on 10-of-11 shooting, the 6-1 forward from Nazareth (Pa.) showing why she was a preseason First Team All-Atlantic 10 selection. Coming off a season where she averaged north of 16 ppg, she stuck to her bread and butter, finishing around the rim through smart cuts and finding open spaces within the defense for her teammates to get her the ball. 

Ziegler was slightly less efficient (8-19 FG, 1-5 3PT) but every bit as effective. The 6-2 forward from Denmark knocked down one foul line jumper after another, tying her career high with 16 rebounds (four offensive) while adding in two blocks and two steals.

“I think that she’s just really improved her court awareness of what shots she knows can hit, and she’s taking them,” said Brugler, who only needed to play 26 minutes. “Like the high-post jump shot that she makes, she’s more confident than ever shooting it. Also her rebounding is phenomenal, as you can see on the stat sheet, she out-rebounded everyone.”

“Last year, Talya was a great mentor to me, taking me under her wing, she helped me a lot during that season,” said Ziegler, who averaged 11.8 ppg and 8.7 rpg as a freshman, earning her A-10 Rookie of the Year honors, an award won by Brugler the year before. “So I felt a lot more ready going into this season as a sophomore. I think just having so many games played together as we did, and as she said our chemistry’s just great, and it’s both on and off the court, which helps so much when we play together.”

They were equally impressive defensively, St. Joe’s as a squad absolutely locking Rider down around the bucket. The Broncs were just 10-of-34 (29.4%) inside the arc, relying on its outside shooting (8-of-18, 44.4%) for nearly half of its offensive output. 

“I thought we were phenomenal, I thought our coverage was really, really on point,” Griffin said of her team’s interior defense. “These guys take scouting reports very personal, and when you make things personal, you get them done.”

St. Joe’s slow shooting led to a bit of a slow start, though Griffin’s squad was still up double digits midway through the second quarter, the lead 31-18 by halftime. The third quarter saw the Hawks go right back into the paint, Brugler scoring six straight to put them up 42-21 with 6:37 left in the period, and the rout was on. 

“One of our themes of the week that we had so far this season is ‘paint to great,’ getting paint touches to open up our inside-outside game,” Brugler said. “So when we started getting it into the paint, we found there were openings inside that we could get some easy buckets to get our momentum going.”

Along the way, the Hawks’ guards got in just enough on the action. Julia Nyström knocked down a couple triples for eight points; Davidson transfer Chloe Welch added seven on 2-3 from the floor. Mackenzie Smith was an uncharacteristic 1-of-6 from downtown, but the junior wing had four assists and three rebounds in 25 minutes.

Lansdale Catholic product Gabby Casey, who saw a few minutes of action in both halves in the first game of her freshman year, chipped in a couple fourth-quarter buckets for her first four career points. 

“We’re still trying to figure (the rotation) out, “Griffin said. “We’re evolving and we’re going to get better as we go, and it’s competitive in our gym and that’s what you want.”

Nyström, a 5-8 junior guard, won the offseason competition to be the team’s starting point guard. She registered five assists against one turnover in 31 minutes, going 3-of-6 from the floor.

“She had a great week of practice, she has improved from every week, she has improved, since we started the year, and she’s just going to continue to get better and better,” Griffin said. “Her defense today was phenomenal.”

The Hawks got off to a strong start last season, winning their first nine games. But their youth showed down the stretch as they went 6-9 over their final 15 games, losing in the A-10 quarterfinals and the WNIT first round. With Ziegler and Brugler leading the way, they were picked to finish second in the A-10 this preseason.

There’s a while to go to show if they learned those lessons from last year, but the first step was a successful one. The next step comes Saturday, with a trip to Yale. 

“A decent part is knowing what’s going to happen and what’s going to be expected of us when we hit conference play and later in the season,” Ziegler said. “We know how hard it’s going to be — it’s definitely more personal for me this year, too.”