Women’s Basketball
Overall Record: 5-2
Atlantic-10 Conference Record: 3-2
The St. Joe’s women’s basketball team found success across the first half of their season. They started off the year with two wins over Lincoln University on Dec. 13, with a score of 72-64, and Monmouth University on Dec. 15, who the Hawks beat by a margin of 80-52, led by a 19-point performance from graduate guard Alayna Gribble.
However, the women’s team had to postpone contests due to personnel within the program testing positive for COVID-19. Following the victory over Monmouth, the team was forced to pause all games and practices for two weeks, which caused them to miss a number of key matchups against conference opponents, as well as Drexel University.
After their short break, the Hawks came back with both a home and an away game against La Salle University. St. Joe’s took the victory at Hagan Arena and lost at La Salle’s Tom Gola Arena.
However, it would be another two-week pause for the women’s team as another tier one personnel tested positive for COVID-19, marking the second time that the team would have to postpone games and halt all basketball activities.
The team missed three games with their comeback to the court coming against George Washington University in a hard fought 63-61 win over their Atlantic 10 (A-10) opposition on Jan. 24 led by co-captain and junior guard Katie Jekot ,who shot four of seven from behind the three-point line.
In their most recent contest, the Hawks managed a 76-69 win over the University of Massachusetts, led by graduate transfer forward Alexis Santarelli, who’s having a strong season in her first year on Hawk Hill, and again Jekot, who’s been a consistent part of the Hawks starting lineup across their first six games and leads the team in average minutes per game.
With A-10 conference play set to continue for the women’s team within the coming weeks, it will be exciting to see how this talented group of Hawks finishes out their season and where they are within the conference standings come A-10 tournament time.
Statistical Leaders as of Feb. 2:
Alayna Gribble (graduate) – 67 points
Katie Jekot (junior) – 35 assists
Gabby Smalls (sophomore) – 44
rebounds
Katie Jekot – 11 steals
Gabby Smalls & Jaden Walker
(sophomore) – 7 blocks
Katie Jekot – 31.3 minutes/game
Gabby Smalls – .581 FG%
Men’s Basketball
Overall Record: 1-14
Atlantic 10 Conference Record: 0-9
It has been a tough year thus far for the St. Joe’s men’s basketball team due to a plague of struggles and injuries throughout the first half of the 2020-21 season.
The Hawks showed flashes of potential early in the season by taking a solid Auburn University team to overtime in their opening preseason matchup, which they lost 96-91 but were led by a 28-point performance from redshirt junior forward Taylor Funk. Just a day later, they would play the nations No. 6 team at the time, the University of Kansas, in a competitive matchup where the Hawks were beat 94-72 after tiring in the second half following the previous day’s overtime performance.
However, after the game against Kansas, St. Joe’s season would be put on hold as a tier one personal member tested positive for COVID-19, postponing two of the Hawks games against Bradley University and Temple University. The team then played Drexel University in a City 6 matchup following a two week pause. This was a game the Hawks should have won, but they were edged out by the Dragons who shot over 46% from the floor, 81-77, all in spite of redshirt senior guard Ryan Daly dropping 30-points on the night.
In the annual Holy War against Villanova University, the No. 7 team in the nation at the time, the Hawks played a tightly contested first half only down 41-33 heading into the locker rooms. However the Wildcats took off in the second half and ran away with a 88-68 victory over St. Joe’s, defeating the Hawks for the ninth straight season.
While it’s obvious the Hawks have struggled this year, there are a few factors at play that are hurting the Hawks on the court. The first is the strength of their game schedule. According to college basketball reporter Ken Pomeroy, the Hawks have played one of the top 30 most difficult schedules in the nation. It’s unusual for St. Joe’s to play such a touch schedule particularly being part of a mid-major conference in the A-10, but Head Coach Billy Lange has brought some aggressive scheduling tactics to Hawk Hill with his teams anytime, anywhere attitude toward opponents.
The Hawks lost 2019-20 A-10 leading scorer Daly in late December, as he has been out with a thumb injury. Names like redshirt sophomore guard Greg Foster Jr, senior forward Anthony Longpré and sophomore guard Jack Forrest have all missed time due to injuries, or other undisclosed reasons, throughout the course of this season.
The Hawks managed to pick up their first win against the University at Albany on Jan. 9 with a final score of 67-64, led by freshmen guard Jordan Hall who managed 13-points and 9 assists in the contest. However, having played their first nine conference matchups already, the Hawks are still in search of their first A-10 victory, which should be aided by the return of Daly in the coming games.
Statistical Leaders as of Feb. 2:
Taylor Funk (Redshirt Junior) – 243 points
Jordan Hall (freshman) – 88 assists
Taylor Funk – 87 rebounds
Jordan Hall – 18 steals
Taylor Funk – 11 blocks
Ryan Daly (redshirt senior) – 33.0 minutes/game
Anthony Longpré (senior) – .609 FG%
