City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADRobinson3)
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PHILADELPHIA >> Emily Knouse swished a three as the last shot of warm-ups, dipped her head slightly and raised both arms toward the ceiling of Hagan Arena.

It was a good harbinger of what was to come for the Saint Joseph’s freshman and a few of her fellow reserves on the Hawks bench Saturday afternoon with La Salle making the short trip for an important A-10 clash. The all-Philly clash was physical and tough throughout, forcing St. Joe’s to put a lot of faith in its second group to make things happen.

That faith was rewarded as the Hawks bench gave St. Joe’s a significant lift in a 69-60 win on Hawk Hill.

“We practice as hard as it is in the games, for sure,” Knouse said. “Our coaches do a great job getting us prepared for tough games and tough situations like this. We go through situations like this against our practice squad and they get us prepared for any kind of hardships or adversity that could come during a game.”

Knouse, an Archbishop Wood alum, had a strong game with 14 points off the bench while hitting 4-of-8 from three-point range and adding two assists, two rebounds and three steals. The 5-foot-11 guard has been a mainstay in the Hawks’ reserve rotation and with much of the starting lineup battling foul trouble, it wasn’t a huge swing for her to go 24 minutes on Saturday.

She wasn’t the only one in the second unit who rose to the occasion in a game that featured 45 combined fouls, 54 combined free throws and three starters fouling out between both teams.

Kaylinn Bethea had arguably her best game of the season, the freshman from Penn Charter adding nine points, four rebounds, two assists and a steal in 18 minutes for St. Joe’s. The Hawks also got good minutes from Meja Jagerskog and Kaylie Griffin off the bench while Cecilia Kay, usually a key piece of the second unit, stepped up in a starting role with Jill Jekot missing Saturday’s game due to an injury.

“You analyze it in practice,” Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said. “You look at what the second group is doing and the gap is getting closer. That is positive because it gives us all confidence we can put these guys in and give us some great minutes.

“You look at the last couple practices, KayKay and Meja have been doing an unbelievable job and Knousey is Knousey, she’s always going to play smart and make the three, she’s really coming along and I’m just happy the way we responded after Wednesday’s game.”

Both teams came into Saturday’s game off losses, so there was added incentive on each side to pick up a win to stay in the thick of what’s becoming a pretty interesting A-10 table. St. Joe’s had a miserable night offensively in a loss to Davidson on Wednesday but got off to a solid start against the Explorers paced by seven first quarter points from Aleah Snead.

La Salle fell behind 10 early but made the first of several rallies to get within 17-14 before Knouse ended the first quarter with her first three and a 20-14 lead. La Salle turned up its on-ball pressure in the second, opening the frame on a 12-6 run and tying the game 26-26 on back-to-back baskets by Ashleigh Connor.

Jagerskog drew a foul on an offensive rebound after a Knouse miss in response, kicking off what was a one-sided end to the half as St. Joe’s ripped off a 15-0 run over the final 5:04.

The run was largely fueled by the second unit, which had been pressed into extended service when Snead, Rhian Stokes and Faith Stinson all had to sit with multiple fouls. Bethea felt like the small plays like diving on the floor or hustling after a loose ball brought up her team’s energy and the guard proved that when she ended the half with a tremendous effort.

The freshman broke up a play with a deflection that shot down the floor and seemed likely to go out of bounds over the endline. Except Bethea hustled after it, saving the ball in the corner and making a last-second pass to the trailing Jagerskog for a layup and 41-26 halftime lead.

“Coach always emphasizes ‘always be ready,’ and I think that as a bench, we’re always going to bring energy,” Bethea said. “One thing that we love to do, we pick our teammates back up. So, when we see someone falling down, we make sure that we respond in a positive way and bring everyone’s energy back up.”

For as much as things went against them in the second quarter - the Explorers put St. Joe’s in the bonus early, committed seven turnovers, gave up an offensive rebound on a missed free throw that led to a Knouse three - La Salle turned it around in the third quarter. Using Kiara Williams’ physical presence in the paint as a hub, the Explorers’ big three of Aryss Macktoon, Connor and Joan Quinn got going.

Macktoon led all scorers with 19 points while Quinn posted 15 for the Explorers, who also got 10 each from Connor and Williams. Quinn, a Cardinal O’Hara alum, caught fire in the third quarter with 10 points in the frame including a straightaway three with two seconds left that put La Salle in front 50-49 for its first lead of the day.

“It shows what we’re capable of and who we can be, but you need to be that for more than one of the four quarters,” Explorers coach Mountain MacGillivray said. “We were able to turn defense into offense, we were focused on being able to take advantage of the matchups with pounding the ball inside and playing through Kiara.

“I think when you have a big lead, you don’t want to lose it so maybe St. Joe’s was a little tight trying to hold onto that and we were a little desperate and that’s the nature of every basketball game when someone gets ahead.”

Knouse only made one basket in the second half, but it was a big one. After Stinson took a charge on the opening possession of the fourth to keep La Salle’s lead at one, Gabby Casey found Knouse on a curl cut out to the left wing and the freshman knocked down the in-rhythm three to put St. Joe’s back in front for good.

That was the start of a 7-0 run where Knouse and Bethea either scored or assisted every point which resulted in a 56-50 lead they could try to protect the rest of the way. After being pushed by the Explorers to close the third quarter, it was a big response.

“It was huge, they were starting to take some of our momentum that we had taken at halftime,” Knouse said. “It was important that we started to take some of that momentum back for us.”

Stokes, who had a nice cheering section with the current Ewing NJ High School team in the stands to watch their alum, helped close the game with four points, three rebounds and an assist in the fourth quarter. Snead also grabbed a couple clutch boards before fouling out and Stinson finished with 11 points and six boards.

Griffin also cited the play of Kay, who made her second straight start, for her work on the defensive end. The 6-foot-2 sophomore had been a key frontcourt reserve before this week and on Saturday she gave the Hawks 27 minutes to bolster the forward rotation.

Casey, who sat all of 33 seconds in the game, paced the Hawks with 15 points and had a critical basket to make it a three-point lead with 4:28 left after Williams converted an and-one that pulled La Salle within 58-57. The junior from Lansdale Catholic had another all-around impact with seven rebounds, two assists, four steals and a block while giving the Hawks a veteran presence in lineups that often featured two or three bench players.

“We showed a lot of toughness,” Griffin said. “Aleah was in foul trouble but she got a lot of big boards for us. Gabby is Gabby, I mean she just does so many things for us and she just ends up with 50/50 balls then KayKay and Meja coming in and doing a great job, the toughness, that’s who we are.”

La Salle showed plenty of toughness as well and the Explorers were able to get within 63-60 with 29 seconds left but couldn’t find one or two more baskets to keep the pressure on. MacGillivray felt that the Hawks were able to win in key areas statistically and in the margins, something the Explorers coach thinks will be a recurring trend across the A-10 for teams that are coming out on top in conference matchups.

“A good portion of this league is capable of beating some of the teams at the top where I don’t know the center to bottom had much of a prayer last year,” MacGillivray said. “It’s a different league and it is every year.”

With the league shaping up to be a battle for positioning and seeding until the first weekend of March, there will likely come another game where the Hawks have to turn to their bench for a lift. Saturday was a sign that the second unit would welcome the opportunity again.

“I think we’re really just ready for anything,” Knouse said. “These are always fun games you want to be a part of and I think we’re always prepared. We do a great job of making the right decisions and we trust each other and I think that’s why we always play so well in tough games like this.”