St. Joseph’s ability to roll with the punches has amounted to a seven-game winning streak
Even with the loss of star Talya Brugler, the Hawks continue to find ways to remain the class of the Atlantic 10 in women’s basketball.
St. Joseph’s senior Talya Brugler has been a star forward for the Hawks for the past few years but has missed the last five games with a hand injury.
Despite her absence since Jan. 22, the Hawks (19-4, 10-2 Atlantic 10) just matched their longest winning streak of the season, which now stands at seven following a 69-49 win over St. Louis on Wednesday. Laura Ziegler’s 19 points in the first half help told the story of how the Hawks are finding a way to fare without Brugler.
“Obviously, Laura has been the leader of the pack in that category. She’s really put us on her shoulders,” coach Cindy Griffin said. “And her counterpart as Aleah Snead, just Aleah coming in and being able to play with Laura, I think gave her a lot of confidence.”
Snead, a Philly native and Penn Charter alumna, is coming off her first Atlantic 10 Player of the Week honor after averaging 19 points in a pair of wins for the Hawks last week. Snead has put up double figures in her last four outings, finishing Wednesday’s game with 13 points.
“Aleah is always ready for that occasion,” Griffin said. “We always say be ready and stay ready because you never know when your number is going to be called.”
While Ziegler said there’s a similarity in playing with both Brugler and Snead, Ziegler still had to adjust to the lineup change across the last few games.
“I think Talya does so much for us that you can’t even mention all of it, and it doesn’t show up in the stat sheet,” Ziegler said. “She’s a leader, she passes the ball, she scores, she rebounds, she does all the small things she said, sets good screens. I didn’t overthink it when Aaliyah came in, but I also know that Aleah is really good from the mid-post, she’s really good from the three-point line — when she can get a big post play on her, she’s so much faster.”
But it’s not just Ziegler and Snead. Griffin said it’s an effort you can see “across the board,” with emphasis on sophomore Gabby Casey’s eight rebounds and senior Mackenzie Smith’s 17 points and five assists against the Billikens.
“Our practices have been phenomenal,” Griffin said. “We always talk about not taking anything for granted, and I think this team epitomizes just taking the opportunities and running with it and continuing to be relentless in those areas.”
While there is production across the board, Ziegler still leads the pack. On a team ranked second in the A-10, Ziegler is second in the conference in scoring (17.7 ppg) and is up there in a number of national rankings as well, leading the NCAA in defensive rebounds, and ranks second in the nation in double-doubles with 17. Her most recent of those came Wednesday.
Ziegler finished with a game-high 27 points, just three points shy of tying her career high. She added 10 boards as St. Joe’s won the rebounding battle, 45-23.
“Really impressed with the way we rebounded,” Griffin said. “We knew it was going to be a game that the team that owned the glass was going to win the game and we did do that by a significant amount.”
Ziegler was one of 50 players recently named to the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award midseason watch list, marking the second time she has received the distinction in her career.
“She’s just a natural leader,” Griffin said. “There [are] some kids that you have to kind of force into those situations. But Laura, she’s a leader because she talks, she knows the pulse of our team. She watches a lot of basketball, and she has great instincts.”
In addition to Ziegler’s honor, Brugler and Smith were named to the Women’s College All-Star Game watch list.
To round out the week of recognition for the Hawks, ESPN’s Women’s Bracketology predicted St. Joe’s to be the last team in on Selection Sunday as of this week. The other A-10 team in the prediction is Richmond, which is projected to win the A-10 championship and secure an automatic bid.
While none of that is certain until the selection show on March 16, the Hawks will be meeting the Spiders a lot sooner. St. Joe’s will host Loyola Chicago on Sunday at 1 p.m. (ESPN+). After that, the Hawks will travel to Richmond on Feb. 13.
Even though St. Joe’s schedule difficulty is ramping up, the hope is that Brugler will be back for the challenges on the horizon.
“We’re just taking it day by day, but she definitely is progressing towards that goal,” Griffin said.