GLEN ALLEN, Va. -- As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Laura Ziegler drove down the lane for the final shot.  

Ziegler tossed it as the buzzer beeped in the background of Saturday’s Atlantic 10 Women’s Basketball Conference semifinal. The Saint Joseph’s Hawks watched as her shot landed and her teammates swarmed her with cheers. Ziegler nailed the buzzer-beater and sealed four-seeded Saint Joseph’s 50-49 thrilling victory over the top-seeded Richmond Spiders.  

The Hawks will advance to their first A-10 Championship game since 2018.  

The Hawks and Spiders remained locked at 47 with 11 seconds remaining. Mackenzie Smith landed two free throws to retie the game for Saint Joseph’s. The Spiders responded with Maggie Doogan’s go-ahead layup with 11 seconds left on the clock. After Doogan’s shot Saint Joseph’s called a 30-second timeout.  

The Hawks returned to the court. Ziegler tossed up her shot and watched the ball fall through the basket as the buzzer beeped in the background.  

“It’s always the next play, it’s always the next one,” Ziegler said of how the Hawks regrouped for the final seconds. “And there’s no better moment, than to have a great moment, than the next one.” 

At 6:20, Emma Boslet grabbed the first offensive rebound but Smith wasn’t able to make the shot. Talya Brugler jumped up for an offensive rebound on Smith’s shot but once again the Hawks couldn’t come away with the bucket.  

Addie Budnik recovered the defensive rebound, but Boslet made the steal and laid it up to knot it at 42 at 6:01. 

The Hawks and Spiders changed leads six times in the final six minutes of the game. In total, Saturday’s semifinal saw 16 lead changes and seven ties.  

“Every time they went on a run, we answered,” Saint Joseph’s coach Cindy Griffin said. “And that went down to the last buzzer. And the resilience, the relentlessness, the belief and the ability and they're a very good team. They played really well together. And they believed.” 

The Spiders will await the NCAA Selection Show next Sunday night to see where they land. Richmond currently ranks 33rd in the NET and is projected 9 or 10 seed in most bracketology's. The Spiders have the best NET ranking of any team outside the Power Five and are 9-4 against top-100 teams, which is the 11th best winning percentage in the nation. It’s the most of any team outside the Power Five. 

“I think we’re more than a viable candidate to be in there,” Richmond coach Aaron Roussell said. “... I think what we did in the offseason where our administration supported us to do as a mid-major team, I literally don’t know what else we could have done.” 

The Spiders’ played a top-25 non-conference schedule in the nation that included four Quad 1 games. Richmond, who is receiving votes in the AP and Coaches Poll, was on a 17-game winning streak before the loss today. 

Selection Show begins Sunday, March 16 at 8 p.m.