The defensive glass belongs to Laura Ziegler, who has St. Joe’s on a roll

When Laura Ziegler plays basketball, she still hears her mother’s voice in her head telling her to rebound. And Ziegler listens.

Ziegler grabbed 15 boards, 14 on the defensive end, in St. Joseph’s 83-56 win over St. Bonaventure on Wednesday night. She leads the nation in defensive rebounds with 190 and is averaging 11.8 rebounds per game overall.

“That’s a little bit of a crazy stat,” Ziegler said of defensive rebounds. “I’ve always had the mentality that you need to control what you can control, and going after rebounds is something you can control. So a stop ends with a rebound.”

Ziegler and the Hawks (15-4, 6-2 Atlantic 10) jumped out to a 22-2 lead at the outset that the Bonnies (4-15, 1-7) weren’t able to erase.

“We’re very pleased with the way we started the game,” Hawks coach Cindy Griffin said. “I thought defensively we were connecting on all cylinders and offensively as well.”

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With the top defense in the conference, that is what the Hawks hang their hat on, Griffin said. But they had a strong offensive showing Wednesday as well, thanks in no small part to their defense.

“We shot the ball really well,” Griffin said. “We got the shots that we wanted, and the ball moved. We had 20 assists, eight turnovers, and that just says a lot about how things were flowing.”

Senior Mackenzie Smith paced the Hawks with 20 points, making 3 of 5 shots from beyond the arc. Ziegler scored 17 points, marking her 14th double-double in 19 games. She’s second in the nation in double-doubles.

While seniors Emma Boslet and Talya Brugler were out, St. Joe’s had a next-player-up mentality with Rhian Stokes and Gabby Casey each scoring 13 points, and Aleah Snead and Paula Maurina tallying nine each.

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Still, all roads lead to Ziegler.

“When you’re playing with Laura, she makes everything a little bit easier,” Griffin said. “To have a player like Laura, kind of settle the storm, if you will, you can put anybody out there. She’s going to be there for them, and she’s going to make sure that we’re running offense and we’re doing all the little things.”

Ziegler, a 6-foot-2 junior from Denmark, leads the team in scoring, rebounds, assists, blocks, and minutes played. She’s second in the A-10 in scoring and assists and third in minutes per game. She also has recorded two triple-doubles and is one of just four players in the nation to have more than one this season.

“Since freshman year, I think Coach has told me she wants to play me less, and it hasn’t happened yet,” Ziegler said. “As a player, you always want to get out there and play, and you also want to play so well that we can play everyone and we feel comfortable playing everyone.”

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And that’s what Ziegler has helped her team do this season: compete with everyone.

In the Hawks’ four losses, Ziegler has had double figures in rebounding, scoring, or both. Their loss to Virginia Commonwealth was the only game Ziegler when didn’t have double digits in boards, but she still put up 19 points.

A two-way player, Ziegler said that after three years it has become easier to do both. But for her, it all starts with defense.

“I’ve always taken a lot of pride in being a smart player and knowing what we want to do, and I talk a lot, too. That comes very natural,” Ziegler said. “But I think there always has to be a focus, and as coach says, we take pride in our defense. It starts there, and we have a lot of easy points there just from running on that.”

Ziegler and the Hawks will see how their defensive synergy fares against A-10 and Big Five foe La Salle when St. Joe’s hosts the Explorers on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+).