City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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NORTH PHILADELPHIA — St. Joe’s didn’t convert a basket in the overtime period. Their last bucket came nine minutes of game time earlier when the final horn sounded on Wednesday's Big 5 game against Temple at the Liacouras Center.

That didn’t matter.

The Hawks’ defense did enough to stifle the Owls, and they made enough shots at the foul line for a 67-65 win, preserving their undefeated start.

Sophomore forward Laura Ziegler scored 21 points and grabbed 13 boards, and freshman Gabby Casey added 15 points for St. Joe’s.

“We’ve been so good in flow, and when someone breaks that flow, we’ve gotta be able to grind,” St. Joe’s head coach Cindy Griffin said. “We did grind today. … That’s certainly a confidence booster that we know we can win a close game.”

The Hawks (5-0) came in outsourcing opponents with an average margin of victory of 20.5 ppg in their first four wins. That included two local victories — a 77-49 win over Penn and a 64-53 win over Drexel.

Coming off a 90-62 drubbing by Villanova and an 80-63 loss to Ole Miss in their previous two games, the Owls (2-4) were trending in the other direction.

A 28-11 St. Joe’s lead with 9:09 left in the second half suggested a similar story for both teams was about to play out. Then Temple reeled off 11 straight points and suddenly there was a ball game.

St. Joe’s led 39-29 at halftime and 49-44 at the end of the third quarter. Owls guard Aleah Nelson, who scored 16 points, converted an and-one then drilled a triple to give Temple its first lead, 50-49, with 8:37 to play. 

“It was a disappointing loss,” Temple head coach Diane Richardson said. “We showed we have fight, but again we start our games slow in the beginning and then we have to fight. We won every quarter fighting back and then overtime free throws killed us. I don’t understand how we play a physical team and we shoot nine free throws and they shoot 23.”

Wednesday marked the 12th overtime game in Big 5 women’s basketball history. St. Joe’s and Temple have played six of them. There were five ties and five lead changes in the fourth quarter. 

Temple freshman Tristen Taylor had her best game to date with 21 points. She had the hot hand in the fourth quarter, scoring her team’s final nine points of the period to put the Owls ahead 59-57 with 1:56 left.

“My coaches just give me confidence and tell me to keep shooting,” Taylor said. “They know I have a great jump shot, so they just tell me to keep shooting it. Today, I just did what they asked me to do.”

St. Joe’s final field goal of the game was a layup by junior forward Talya Brugler with four minutes left. The Hawks took advantage of being in the bonus going 8-for-10 in the fourth quarter and 8-for-10 again in the overtime period. They were 18-for-23 at the line in the game compared to Temple's 8-for-9 showing.

Still, Temple had the ball up 60-59 with 10 seconds left.

Ziegler poked an inbounds pass away. Chloe Welch was fouled driving baseline on the other end with less than two seconds left. She went 1-for-2 at the line to tie the game and Nelson’s desperation shot at the other end rimmed out.

“Watching the game against Villanova, we know the sidelines out of bounds plays they run, and I was counting on that they were going to go to one of their guards,” Ziegler said.

“We knew we needed to get a steal and knew we needed to get that bucket. It was kind of a risk but it worked out, so I’ll take it.”

While St. Joe’s combined to shoot 1-for-14 in the fourth quarter and overtimes, the Hawks’ defense continued to get the job done. Temple was 2-for-10 in the extra frame. The Owls missed their first five shots and had to play uphill again after falling behind 64-59 with 1:04 left following two Ziegler free throws.

St. Joe’s defense has been a big part of its undefeated start. The Hawks entered Wednesday 13th in scoring defense (49.0 ppg) and 32nd in field goal percentage defense (32.9 percent) nationally.

“I think we’re older, I think that helps,” Griffin said. “I think the experience out there and understanding, they’ve faced a lot of different schemes. Just having that confidence and having Chloe coming in just adds another punch defensively.”

Temple shot a combined 34.3 percent from the floor and 22.2 percent from deep in the two losses to Ole Miss and Villanova, while allowing those two squads to shoot 50 percent from the floor. 

The offensive end was still a grind for the Owls — 25-of-72 from the field (34.7 percent) — but their defensive effort was much improved, especially after the Hawks jumped out to a 28-11 lead early in the second quarter. 

Temple held St. Joe’s to 35 percent shooting. The Owls figured out a way to slow Brugler who finished with 10 points on 2-for-8 shooting after averaging 16 ppg in the first four games.

“I do have to say when we talk about resilience, I look at the stats and we won in every statistical category,” Richardson said. “It’s just that we started slow and the free throws hurt us.”