City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2025-26 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 4. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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For any fan of local girls’ basketball, watching the St. Joe’s women practice is like watching a local all-star squad. 

There’s former Lansdale Catholic star Gabby Casey, feeding former archrival Emily Knouse of Archbishop Wood for a layup. Or Penn Charter alum Kaylinn ‘KK’ Bethea guarding her former fellow Quaker Aleah Snead, the two teaming up again after a couple years apart. In the next rep of an inbounds play drill, Haverford High product Rian Dotsey fights off Gwynedd Mercy’s Kaylie Griffin for a rebound. 

Including Ewing (N.J.)’s Rhian Stokes, who played with plenty of local talent on the Philly Rise, and Cumberland Valley’s Jill Jekot, ditto with the Comets, along with walk-on Lauren Green (Archbishop Wood), there are nine different girls on the 2025-26 Hawks’ roster.

On a young team that lost 70% of its scoring, 62% of its minutes and about 90% of its leadership and overall experience from last year due to graduation and the transfer portal, that familiarity with one another could be the magic ingredient that keeps the St. Joe’s women in the mix in a tough, deep Atlantic 10.

“I think just being in Philly and playing around them, we all knew how each other played,” Casey told CoBL before practice on Fri., Oct. 10. “And (having) that gritty playing style, that’s what we needed and what we’re looking for, and it added a lot to this team.”

“Definitely [helps] that we’ve seen each other play before so we know what our tendencies are,” Snead added. “[And] local people want to come see local kids, so that gives us a really good home-court advantage when we play other teams.”

Gone from the roster are forward Laura Ziegler, an Atlantic 10 First Team selection, who transferred to Louisville after averaging 17.5 ppg and 10.4 rpg as a junior; senior forward Talya Brugler, who finished her career third-all-time on Hawk Hill in scoring (1,736 points) and in the top 10 in numerous other categories; senior wing Mackenzie Smith, whose 1,618 points are 7th all-time and who has two of the top 10 3-point shooting seasons in program history; Emma Boslet, who started 29 games at point guard last year, her fifth at St. Joe’s; and reserves Julia Nystrom and Paula Maurina. 

That group formed the core of a squad that went 52-16 over its last two years, making it to the A-10 championship game this past season. George Mason kept St. Joe’s from celebrating its first title since 2013 and first NCAA trip since 2014. 

Gabby Casey (above) was the Hawks' fourth-leading scorer last year. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Casey and Snead, both juniors, along with Stokes, a sophomore, are the only three returners from the rotation, but it’s a solid group to begin with. Snead, a 5-11 wing, was the A-10 Sixth Woman of the Year, averaging 6.4 ppg and 3.9 rpg. Casey, a 5-10 guard, was the team’s fourth-leading scorer (7.7 ppg, 4.4 rpg), and Stokes (5.7 ppg, 1.9 rpg) certainly looked like the team’s future at point guard. 

The two juniors along with Griffin, a fifth-year point guard and daughter of 24th-year head coach Cindy Griffin, form the leadership group for this year’s squad, which includes four freshmen and five sophomores along with a quintet of upperclassmen.

“With the loss of the seniors and transfers, they knew that there was a big opening for them to step up, and they’re ready for it,” Cindy Griffin said. “I think Gabby has done a wonderful job, just stepping up and talking to the point where I can’t believe where she is, from freshman year to now. Aleah’s a little bit more quiet and reserved, but her actions speak for itself, and you can see her voice starting to find its way.”

That core has a few outside additions who will certainly help this year. Senior Faith Stinson is a 6-2 forward and transfer from IU Indy (formerly IUPUI), coming off a season where she started 30 games and averaged 9.2 ppg and 5.3 rpg. Also joining the frontcourt is 6-2 sophomore Cecilia Kay, a Patriot League All-Rookie selection last season after averaging 11.5 ppg and 8.9 rpg at American. 

The Hawks’ third transfer addition this offseason has a familiar name on Hawk Hill. Jill Jekot’s older sister Katie was a standout for St. Joe’s over the course of five seasons (2018-23), starting 123 games at point guard; the youngest Jekot sister comes in after spending one year at Penn State, where she played sparingly in 21 appearances. 

“We had to bring (a Jekot) back,” Griffin laughed. “I was like, ‘can I just get another one?’ Jill’s been great [...] she’s learning as we go as well, and it’s going to be a great year for her.”

With those three transfers along with Snead, Casey and Stokes all in the mix for starting spots and/or featured spots in the rotation, there’s still room for others to get significant playing time. That’s where the freshmen factor in, as well as sophomore Meja Jagerskog, a 6-2 forward from Sweden, and Kaylie Griffin, who played in 27 games a year ago.

Bethea, a 5-9 guard, is the most explosive of the three athletically and could instantly be one of the team’s best on-ball defenders. Knouse, a 6-0 wing, is best as a 3-and-D wing, and she was knocking down shots all throughout practice Friday. Dotsey, a 6-1 forward, can play multiple frontcourt positions, able to stretch the floor and score in the mid-range.

“I think they’re all right there,” Cindy Griffin said. “That’s why these practices are so important because we have to evaluate situations. I think if we need defense, you’re going to look at Bethea; if you want offense, you’re going to look at Knouse and Dotsey.”

Griffin mentioned how her 2025 graduating class benefitted greatly from playing early and often their freshman years, Brugler and Smith especially getting thrown right into big minutes off the bat. She might not necessarily need this year’s crop to do the same thing, but the payoff down the road is on her mind. 

Griffin acknowledged it’s going to take time for this year’s Hawks to figure everything out, calling her group “an unknown commodity in a lot of different things.” Expect a good amount of rotation experimentation early in the season as Griffin mixes and matches, a process that could last into the Atlantic 10 season. 

Coach and players alike agreed that if this group has a strength right now, it’s on the defensive end. Getting stops will be critical for a team that’s going to take time to figure out its go-to scorers.

“We’re going to be able to run in transition more and get more early looks and steals,” said Snead, who was an A-10 preseason All-Defensive Team selection this fall. “We’re more of an athletic team and more lengthy, so [we’ll] get more steals and be out in the frontcourt more.”

After the success of the last three years, this year is critical for the Hawks to prove they’re a force that’s going to stay near the top of the Atlantic 10, even with O’Hara grad Maggie Doogan and Richmond leading a tough pack. St. Joe’s was picked to finish sixth in the league’s preseason poll, a sign of respect from the rest of the coaches that despite all the Hawks lost, they’re expected to be a problem yet again.

“We are St. Joe’s,” Snead said, “so of course we want to stay on top, stay winning and start from the beginning, come out with a bang. We’re going to be practicing every single day to not have that drop-off.”