HILLSBORO — It didn’t take long for the visiting St. Vincent Lady Indians to build a commanding lead as they powered their way to a 62-14 victory over a shorthanded Grandview team at Alec Burks Court on Jan. 15.
“They’re in a down year this year,” said St. Vincent coach Mel Kirn. “They don’t have a lot of players, but Christy Smith, their coach, is doing a good job with them.”
St. Vincent senior Rylee Robinson led the Lady Indians (10-4) with 17 points, followed by fellow seniors Brie Rubel with 15 and Kate Rubel with 13.
Behind those three, the Lady Indians built a 38-6 lead by halftime.
“We did a lot of switching,” Kirn said. “We let eight of our players score. We mixed it up, and we just let the kids play.”
The Lady Eagles (2-13) were led by Kaimaile Tennyson, who had 6 points.
“We played a lot of good defense,” Kirn said. “We had 19 steals, and we had 8 turnovers. That was pretty good, too. We had the offensive boards really well. We had 17 rebounds. But everybody scored that played, and I thought that was pretty good. We had 17 assists. They distributed the ball out very well. Having 17 assists means that they were getting the ball to everybody so they can get some shots and score. I was very pleased with it.”
After such a strong first half, the Lady Indians backed off a bit in the second, outscoring Grandview 24-8 to set the final margin. St. Vincent played without senior guard Lana Adams, who will be out for 10 days. Her starting spot was filled by junior Paige Leible.
“[Leible] started and she did a very good job for us,” Kirn said. “Then we had Sophie Verseman come off the bench and got a bunch of rebounds for us and put some points on the board. Alaina Cates came in — she hasn’t played much all year — and ended up with four points. So I was pleased with the way our girls came out. They don’t care who scores. They just dish it. It’s a lot of fun to watch them dish the ball away.”
ST. VINCENT 44, ST. PIUS X 35
FESTUS — St. Vincent senior Brie Rubel scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Lady Indians to a nine-point victory over host St. Pius X on Jan. 14.
“They’ve got a scrappy little ball club up there,” said St. Vincent coach Mel Kirn. “Our girls really played hard. They came out and set the tone for defense, and the first quarter was like 11-10 or us. It was just back and forth, and in the fourth quarter, we outscored them 15-8 to go ahead and take the lead.”
The Lady Indians led 21-13 at the half, but by the end of the third quarter, the Lady Lancers (8-5) had closed the gap to two, trailing 29-27.
Kirn credited his team’s defensive efforts for the victory, especially on the boards.
“We had 19 defensive rebounds,” Kirn said. “I thought that was pretty awesome, but we didn’t shoot from the free-throw line very well. We went to the line 22 times, and we only made half of them. That could have been a whole different ball game if we’d made some of those free throws.”
Senior Lana Adams had 12 points for St. Vincent, and senior Kate Rubel had 10 points. Brooke Blankenship led the Lady Lancers with 15 points.
Despite the team having a few issues, Kirn said he was pleased with the victory.
“We fought back, and we played some really good defense, some pressure defense, and we handled it very well,” Kirn said. “I was very pleased with the way the girls all played. We ended up with 10 assists, and I was pretty happy with that, too. They’re dishing it out and looking for everybody
