City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Jill Jekot was in third grade — or perhaps younger — when she attended Cindy Griffin’s basketball camp. She wasn’t much older than that when her sister, Katie Jekot, started a six-year career on City Ave which saw her start 123 games in a Hawk uniform before her 2023 graduation. 

“I feel like I’ve been in this gym since I was like 10 years old, watching her play,” Jill Jekot said. “I’ve been around here for a long time.”

Tuesday night, though, Jill Jekot was doing something at Hagan Arena she hadn’t ever done before: putting on a Hawks uniform and taking the court for a meaningful collegiate game. 

A sophomore guard and Penn State transfer, Jekot looked right at home on Hawk Hill in her St. Joe’s debut, scoring 20 points to lead her squad to a 69-46 win over D-II West Chester in the season opener for both teams.

Playing a team-high 32 minutes, Jekot was 6-of-12 from the floor (2-6 3PT, 6-7 FT), adding six rebounds and three steals as the Hawks fought off a challenge from the Golden Rams to pull away down the stretch. 

“Getting out there was exciting, nerve-wracking, but I’m glad we won our first game and started on a good note,” she said. “It is special [playing here] and honestly, I love this team, I love what they value, the selflessness, the relentlessness, and I work every day to reach those values for them and for this team.”

Jill’s St. Joe’s debut bettered her sister Katie’s by four points; her 20 points in her first SJU game put her second-most in program history behind Claire Melia, who scored 23 against Columbia on Nov. 7, 2019. 

Jill and Katie Jekot are just half of the Jekot clan which has played Division I basketball in the last decade. The oldest sister, Kelly Jekot, played at Penn State from 2017-22; Julie Jekot, third-oldest, played at La Salle, where she’s currently a graduate assistant, from 2022-24. 

“You know what you’re getting with a Jekot,” St. Joe’s coach Cindy Griffin said. “You’re getting a very high basketball IQ, someone that values different parts of the game as far as her ability to score the ball in different ways, and you know you’re going to get a team player, and Jill has all those qualities.”

The youngest Jekot sibling began her career at Penn State, appearing in 21 games a year ago, averaging just under a point per contest and seeing double-digit minutes just three times. She hit the transfer portal in the spring and didn’t take long to get in touch with Griffin, committing to the Hawks shortly thereafter. 

She joins a Hawks’ squad that’s very much looking for an identity early in the season following the graduations of Talya Brugler and Mackenzie Smith and the transfer of Laura Ziegler, a trio that formed the core of their offensive attack the last three seasons. 

Those growing pains were clear early on as West Chester led by three after one quarter and was within three at the half, sticking around well into the third quarter before St. Joe’s finally started to put some distance between itself and the visitors. 

Joining Jekot in double figures was junior guard Gabby Casey, the Lansdale Catholic product putting together a 13-point, 10-rebound double-double which also included four steals and three assists. Freshman guard Emily Knouse (Archbishop Wood) added nine points on 3-of-8 from deep, and American U transfer Cecilia Kay scored six points and grabbed 11 rebounds. 

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Hawks dominate glass, struggle offensively

It was not a pretty night offensively for the St. Joe’s women. The Hawks turned it over 16 times against a D-II opponent and shot just 25-of-68 (36.8%) from the floor, 8-of-29 (27.6%) from the 3-point arc and 11-of-17 (64.7%) from the foul stripe, numbers that aren’t going to cut it if they want to compete in the Atlantic 10. 

The main culprits were junior wing Aleah Snead (1-10 FG, 3 points) and Casey, who was 4-of-14 from the floor and 2-of-8 from the 3-point arc. But there were plenty of missed layups and a few airballed jumpers from around the roster, and five different players contributed multiple turnovers to the tally. 

“I just thought we were rushing, we were playing too fast,” Griffin said. “What we thought was open wasn’t open; inside they were double-teaming us, we didn’t space the floor well, we were standing around and we were watching our guys get double-teamed and we weren’t flashing to the ball.”

The Hawks made up for their rough night from the floor by dominating the glass, winning the rebounding battle 50-27 and outsourcing the Golden Rams 32-16 in the paint, and 16-2 on second-chance points. They also forced 22 turnovers, with 16 of them coming as steals.

“I think tonight was really good for us,” Griffin said. “We kind of got punched in the face a little bit and I thought we responded, give credit to West Chester, they were physical, they were up in our faces, trying to expose us on some slips and some switches and we needed that, 

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Golden Rams start freshman trio

It was a few weeks into the preseason that WCU coach Kiera Wooden realized that her program’s future might also be its present. Despite having a handful of collegiate veterans on her roster, it was her newcomers who were opening eyes big-time in practice. 

“I just felt like the freshmen that we had, they were working hard,” she said. “Not saying our whole team wasn’t working hard, but they were working hard, they were executing what we needed them to do, they were executing what we needed them to do. So I decided to give them a chance, and since then it’s been up.”

There were three freshmen and a sophomore in the Golden Rams’ starting lineup on Tuesday along with junior wing Erin Daley; newcomers Jordin Tate (Caravel Academy, Del.), Lena Stein (Perkiomen Valley) and Kimi Sayson (Shore Regional, N.J.) and second-year guard Bella Mazur. 

All of them contributed in various ways. Stein chipped in seven points and three rebounds in 27 minutes; Sayson finished with five points in 26 minutes; Tate battled tough inside for 31 minutes, finishing with five points and six rebounds plus a couple blocks. 

“I thought Jordin played out of her mind on both ends of the floor,” Wooden said. “She was battling with the bigs, she was rebounding, blocking shots. Some that I thought were clean that got called for fouls, but I don’t have a whistle, so whatever. I thought she played really well for us.”

They weren’t the only underclassmen to impress. Another freshman, Williamstown (N.J.)’s Alivia Mauz, provided a spark off the bench with seven points, four rebounds and three assists. She made an instant impact in the first quarter, knocking down a 3-pointer and then immediately coming up with a steal and layup before dishing out an assist the next time down the floor. 

“She can create off the dribble like no other, [but] she’s been struggling to knock down her shot,” Wooden said. “We’re like, ‘if one of these goes in, she’s going to be fine.’ She hit her first one, and after that, she was perfectly fine.”

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Up Next
Saint Joseph’s (1-0) plays at Maine on Friday, Nov. 7 (7:00 PM)

West Chester (0-1) hosts Salem University on Friday, Nov. 14 (5:00 PM)