St. Joe’s has plenty of momentum heading into A-10 play. Here’s how the Hawks can keep it going.

St. Joseph’s came into the season ranked second in the Atlantic 10 preseason women’s basketball poll, and expectations remain high on Hawk Hill.

The Hawks have won 11 of 12 games to start the season, including their last three following their lone loss, which came at the hands of a ranked Utah team in December.

With an experienced group that made it to the A-10 quarterfinals last season and earned its first postseason berth since 2017-18, St. Joe’s knows it has to bring its all in conference play — and expects the same from its opponents.

As A-10 play begins Saturday at 5-7 Fordham (4 p.m., ESPN+), here is three things the Hawks (11-1) have to do if they want to meet their goal of coming out on top of the A-10:

The Hawks are near the top of the A-10 in key offensive categories.

They’re third in field-goal percentage, shooting 43.1% from the field. Additionally, they’re fourth in three-point percentage, shooting 35.2% from deep, and lead the conference in free-throw shooting percentage at 80.7%.

“We’ve seen a lot in the nonconference, and we’ve been able to execute when we’ve needed to, and so that’s very positive going into league play,” head coach Cindy Griffin said.

Individually, junior Talya Brugler holds the fourth-best scoring average in the conference (15.8). Laura Ziegler (13.3), Mackenzie Smith (12.0), and Chloe Welch (11.8) also are averaging double figures for the Hawks.

That success doesn’t always carry over to the glass, however.

St. Joe’s is averaging 36.4 rebounds per game, good for 10th in the conference.

The Hawks have outrebounded their nonconference foes by about three per game, but teams like Davidson and Richmond, which can outshoot St. Joe’s, could pose a problem. Yale (by four), Temple (by 12), Utah (by 10), and Villanova (by three) were able to outrebound St. Joe’s.

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And even with Ziegler ranked second in the conference with 9.8 boards per game, the Hawks are averaging 26 defensive rebounds and just 10.4 offensive rebounds.

“I would like to see us create a little bit more separation in that column as far as rebounds, versus our opponents, so boxing out and rebounding is an area that we want to continue to work on every day,” Griffin said.

St. Joe’s found itself trailing early in two of their tougher matchups of the season, against Utah and Villanova.

“What happens in a couple of those games is that we weren’t scoring and we were missing our first couple shots, and then they were turning into shots down the other end,” Griffin said.

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Utah used a 17-2 run to start the game to propel past St. Joes, 74-48, on Dec. 7. But once the Hawks started making their shots, they were able to fight back and even brought their deficit within six late in the third quarter.

They had a similar start in the following game against Villanova and found themselves trailing by 10 in the first half. But unlike against Utah, St. Joe’s displayed its mental toughness and was able to shift the momentum in its favor, largely thanks to a third-quarter rally fueled by Smith.

“I’m really, really very, very proud of our team showing a lot of resilience today, being relentless,” Griffin said following the win on Dec. 9. “Just really proud of the way that the whole team stepped up and did what they needed to do against a very good team.”

That no-quit approach and subsequent comeback against Villanova offers a road map for what to do when adversity strikes during conference play.

“If we’re not making [shots] then we certainly [have] to play defense down the other end,” Griffin said. “We can’t let one side of the floor affect the other side of the floor.”