St. Vincent’s state-ranked girls basketball team has several future college athletes on the squad, one of them being Mizzou soccer commit junior Lana Adams.
Adams, who won a national championship as a member of the Lou Fusz Girls Academy in 2023, verbally committed to play for the Southeastern Conference-member Tigers back in September. Lana also earned all-state honors in soccer and won district titles with both St. Vincent basketball and soccer that same year.
“Knowing I’m going to an SEC program is incredible, but I wouldn’t be here without any of the coaches that have ever coached me in basketball, soccer or strength,” Adams said. “I also wouldn’t be here without any of my teammates or parents — I’m going to give [the credit] to them.”
Thankfully for St. Vincent’s basketball team, Adams still has plenty of time left on the hardwood before heading off to Columbia, and she happens to be one of the top reasons why the Indians are having a season to remember.
The Indians are currently 14-2 overall and have recently been ranked as the No. 17 team in all of Missouri by Metro Sports MoKan. St. Vincent was also named the No. 3 team in Class 2 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association.
Back in the 2022-23 season, her freshman year, Adams helped the Indians record their most wins in program history (24) and bring home their first district championship in a decade. Lana missed all of last winter due to an ACL tear as St. Vincent finished 11-14 overall without her and senior Allie Patrick, who had the same injury.
“Just being back with this program, it feels amazing,” Adams said. “We’re working hard as a team, and we’re performing now. It’s so fun to see your hard work pay off. We’re all healthy, having fun and winning games. ... Playing on this team is so enjoyable. I come to practice every day wanting to work and wanting to play with this team to be better because it’s such a fun group of girls to play with.”
Most recently in a 52-35 win over out-of-state Waterloo, Illinois, last Thursday at home, Adams scored a team-high 14 points while also recording five assists, four rebounds and two steals on top of that. Lana also shot a remarkable 85% from the field in the contest as she only missed one of her seven shot attempts.
Being an attacking midfielder on the pitch, Adams is the type of basketball player who uses her physicality and athleticism to make big plays on both ends of the court. Lana said that playing basketball and soccer are similar in the fact that both sports help with her vision of the field and court.
“Basketball helps with seeing the floor — it helps you look for open players — it’s like the same sport,” Adams said. “You’re doing the same things, it’s just that one has more players and then one is with your feet and one your hands. The fundamentals are the same, so they really correspond with each other.”
Lana is currently averaging the second-most rebounds and steals, with averages of five boards and three takeaways per game. Adams has additionally dished out the third-most assists with an average of 2.9 per game and has scored the fourth-most points at 8.8 for St. Vincent so far.
Even though she’s a future SEC athlete, Lana still credits her teammates for her playmaking ability.
“Maybe I get some buckets, but really it’s my team feeding me the ball and getting me open,” Adams noted. “They’ll get me the ball to make the play and if I’m open, someone else is doing the hard work to get me open most of the time. It’s a team effort all and all.”
Like Adams, three other St. Vincent players are set to be college athletes in the future as well. Two of them are the Rubel twins in juniors Brie Rubel and Kate Rubel, who are Division-I prospects in their own right, fielding offers for basketball from Abilene Christian and UT Martin.
The Rubel twins are the top two leaders in a majority of statistical categories for the Indians, as Brie has averaged the most points (12.6), assists (4.3) and steals (3.2), while she’s third overall in rebounds (4.3) and 3-pointers made (24). Kate leads St. Vincent in both rebounds per game (5.4) and blocked shots (18), and she’s second in points (10.1) and assists (3.1).
Brie and Kate combined for 30 points with 18 and 12, respectively, in the Indians’ 77-15 win over Meadow Heights last Tuesday at home. In the near 20-point victory over Waterloo, Kate recorded a season-high four blocks and also produced 10 points with a 3-pointer to pace Adams’ scoring total of 14.
Moving on to the Indians’ all-time single-season leading scorer, Allie Patrick, she has received two offers to play college basketball from Webster and William Penn. Outside of basketball, both Adams and Patrick play soccer together, along with St. Vincent’s fifth and final starter, junior Rylee Robinson.
Robinson and Patrick have hit the most 3s for St. Vincent through 16 games, with 30 and 26 makes from beyond the arc, respectively. Patrick is also the Indians third-leading scorer with 10 points per game, as Robinson has produced 8.3.
Rylee knocked down a game-high four treys against Meadow Heights and finished with 14 points, while Patrick had 10 points and two 3-pointers.
Other members of the soccer team who also play basketball with Adams and company are seniors Mallory Patrick and Haley Emmendorfer and sophomores Aubrey Emmendorfer and Grace Jenneman.
As good as St. Vincent is on the offensive end by currently averaging nearly 60 points per game (most in over 15 years), the Indians are just as good, if not better on the defensive end. St. Vincent is only allowing 31 points per game (lowest in 15-plus years) and has let teams score 40 or more points on just three occasions.
Lana and the Indians averaged 16 steals per game last week as Adams had six takeaways through their two games, as did Brie Rubel. Kate Rubel and senior Alivia Ellis paced both of them with four steals apiece, while Robinson, Haley Emmendorfer and Allie Patrick had three.
“It goes back to working hard and our competitiveness,” Adams said. “Every single person on this team wants to win every single game. No matter who scores the buckets, who gets the assists and who gets the steals, we just want to win the game. We set each other up for those instances, and that’s really what has got us here.”
St. Vincent head coach Mel Kirn has described Adams as one of his undisputed leaders of the team. Along with her athletic ability, Lana plays with a lot of energy and said that she enjoys being a positive presence for her teammates.
“I just like to stay positive — everyone messes up, and I mess up included,” Adams said. “I like trying to keep everyone’s heads up and keep everyone positive — just work on the next play. I like to keep the energy high because when we work hard and keep the energy high, that’s when we perform our best. I also like to reward people who make good passes and good shots. I just like to hype everyone up.”
On top of being a competitive bunch, these St. Vincent girls basketball players also strongly believe in supporting not just each other but their fellow classmates as well.
During the Meadow Heights game, for instance, the team decided not to go to the locker room for halftime so they could instead watch the Indians cheerleading squad perform their routines.
“We love to support each other — just like with the cheerleaders, we support them as well as the boys basketball team,” Adams said. “We love to show up for them because we love it when they show up for us. It makes everything more fun when we have a big student section.”
Next up for the Indians (14-2) is the annual Mayor’s Cup against Perryville (6-8) at 3 p.m. on Saturday at the Perry Park Center. St. Vincent fell to the Pirates 39-30 last winter when the Indians were without four of their current five starters.
