St. Joseph’s women’s basketball team opens season with win over Bucknell
The season stared off well for the Hawks, with their young players leading the way.
The St. Joe’s women’s basketball team opened their regular season at home on Monday Nov. 7 against Bucknell University with a convincing 66-49 win.
“To open up with a win, especially on your home court, is very important for momentum going forward,” head coach Cindy Griffin said. “[I am] just really happy with the way we took care of the basketball today.”
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Stat Leaders
Sophomore guard Mackenzie Smith led the way for the Hawks offensively, shooting 6 of 10 from the field and scoring 19 points.
Freshman forward Laura Zeigler was also impressive in her Hawk debut, shooting 6 of 12 from the field and scoring 16 points. She added five rebounds, three steals and an assist.
The Hawks defended very well, allowing Bucknell to shoot just 37% from the field. St. Joe’s also forced 17 turnovers.
What we saw
The Hawks looked like a well-oiled machine on both sides of the ball, particularly in the second half.
In the first quarter, graduate guard Katie Jekot made a string of fantastic plays that kickstarted a 9-0 run for the Hawks to end the period. She scored a backdoor layup on a nice give and go with Zeigler. Jekot followed that up by finding sophomore guard Julia Nystrom for a transition three, and then drove to the basket and finished a contact layup herself to extend the Hawk lead to five.
St. Joe’s carried the momentum of that run into the second quarter. The Hawks extended that run to 14-4. Following a 10-5 run by the Bison, the Hawks took a 25-20 lead into halftime.
Coming out of the half, the Hawks shot the ball well. The Hawks shot 57.1 percent in the third quarter, and 53.8 in the fourth.
Nystrom had a fantastic game, stifling whichever Bucknell player she was defending. Her lone steal of the night was from a terrific read of a Bucknell pass that she tipped and took the other way to score herself. She followed that up with her third three of the night on the next possession, placing the Hawks firmly in control of the game.