City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Asked if any particular members of her team were especially helpful in getting prepared for an Atlantic 10 matchup with Davidson, Saint Joseph’s junior Talya Brugler didn’t hesitate to credit the entire program.

“I would say honestly, everybody,” she said. “We have practice guys coming in, too, that help us out tremendously; Emmy [Devinie] did a great job this week, one of our girls coming off the bench.”

To her left at the post-game podium, Chloe Welch smiled. Reminded of Welch’s presence, Brugler corrected herself: “Oh well yeah, Chloe too,” she said, both of them laughing. 

Welch had just a bit of a built-in advantage, having spent the first five years of her college career playing for the Wildcats before coming to Hawk Hill this season. Saturday afternoon was a game the Colorado native had been preparing for all season, the only scheduled matchup between her old program and her new, a college basketball game unlike any of the first 135 she’d played.

“I tried to acknowledge it for what it was early on, so it didn’t surprise me when the game came,” she said. “I kind of prepared myself mentally leading up to it, and I talked to coach [Cindy Griffin] about it. We all understand that it was kind of difficult for me, so she was like, ‘as much as you can, try to treat it like another game; when you’re between the lines, it’s just another basketball game.’

“That’s what I tried to do to the best of my ability, and it turned out well for us today.”

Welch contributed 13 points against her former program, helping St. Joe’s to its sixth straight win, a 68-42 triumph on Saturday afternoon at Hagan Arena. She played more than 32 minutes against her former teammates, going 4-of-6 from the floor, capping her day off with a steal and layup in the game’s closing minutes before Griffin emptied her bench.

After playing for Davidson head coach Gayle Fulks for the last five seasons, Welch has become a valuable part of a St. Joe’s squad in the middle of its best season in decades. She’s now averaging 10.9 ppg and 5.6 rpg on .401/.368/.847 splits, Saturday’s outing her eighth in double figures.

There wasn’t much indication that the matchup held much additional emotional weight for Welch, who went about her business as usual; there weren’t any clear interactions between her and her former teammates until the post-game handshake line.

“I still have close relationships with those girls and those coaches, but I think we’re all very competitive, so there was an understanding that as the game gets close, we’re not going to call or text, we’re going to keep it pretty professional,” she said.

“It was fun, but it was also really hard to compete against people that I’ve built relationships with and played on a team with,” she added. “It was kinda tough to go in with that same competitive mindset against the people that I have a lot of love for, and then to hear them cheering against me — obviously I’m very happy to be at St. Joe’s, but it’s just a very hard dynamic to navigate as a player, emotionally.”

Saint Joseph’s (19-2, 8-1) didn’t face too much resistance from a Davidson squad that went 12-1 in the non-league but is without its top two scoring options in Suzi-Rose Deegan (13.3 ppg) and Elle Sutphin (12.6 ppg).

The Hawks scored the game’s first five points — after neither team scored for the first few minutes — and never trailed, consistently extending their advantage over the course of the first half until it was 37-24 midway through. Davidson did make one push, an 8-0 run to turn what had been a 17-point deficit into a nine-point gap with 3:45 remaining in the third, but got no closer. 

A 13-0 run to begin the fourth, putting St. Joe’s up 60-38 with 5:08 remaining slammed the door shut. Davidson (14-6, 4-5) scored just four points in the fourth quarter. 

“We executed really well after the beginning and we got the shots that we wanted to get, but I can’t emphasize enough how well our defense is really growing together as a team,” Griffin said. “When you hold a team to 42 points and four points in the fourth, it’s pretty special.”

The Hawks held the Wildcats to 30% from the floor (15-of-50) and 26.3% (5-of-19) from 3-point range, dominating the glass 43-23. Brugler led the way with 19 points, while both Laura Ziegler (14 points, 10 rebounds) and Mackenzie Smith (12 points, 10 rebounds) collected double-doubles; freshman Gabby Casey added 11 rebounds and four points off the bench. 

Nine games are left in the Hawks’ regular season. There’s still a lot to be settled in the Atlantic 10, which began play Saturday morning with four one-loss teams: SJU and Richmond at 7-1, George Mason and VCU at 6-1, the Hawks the only one of the four in action on Saturday.

Next up is a visit to Loyola (Chicago) on Wednesday, the Ramblers 11-8 (5-3 A-10) entering the weekend; a visit from UMass (3-18, 1-8) comes afterwards on Feb. 3. 

The Hawks are entering the NCAA Tournament bubble picture with their play this season, each win bringing them closer and closer to the goal of a March Madness appearance for the first time since 2014. Brugler and Welch both acknowledged that the team’s aware of the implications of each victory, but are still trying to stay process-driven.

“We take it day by day, we know that every game matters as much as the next,” Welch said. “We have an off day Monday and we start prepping for Loyola (Chicago) and we just do as best as we can each day, and that’s where we are.”