COLUMBIA — In what was the St. Vincent girls' basketball team’s first-ever appearance in the state final four this weekend at Mizzou Arena, the Indians were just 16 minutes away from winning the Class 2 State Championship following the first half of Saturday’s title game.
The Class 2 state final between St. Vincent (27-4) and reigning champions Skyline (29-3) was mostly a back-and-forth affair, but the girls from Perryville actually took a commanding 26-18 lead heading into the locker room.
The Indians did so thanks to a dominant first-half performance by 6-foot-1 junior forward Kate Rubel as she led all scorers after two quarters with 13 points. Kate and St. Vincent also dominated the boards in that span as she hauled in six of her team’s 22 rebounds.
After taking a 10-9 lead in the first quarter, Skyline went back on top 12-10 before the Indians went on a 8-0 run to go up 18-12. St. Vincent’s run was ignited by buckets from 5-10 senior forward Allie Patrick and 5-6 junior guard Rylee Robinson.
Kate Rubel took over from there, though, as she scored St. Vincent’s next four points, the first coming off a hook shot where she drew a foul for an and-1 opportunity. Even though Rubel missed the free-throw attempt, her twin sister 5-10 junior guard Brie Rubel fought for the rebound and got it back to Kate for a layup.
While the Tigers broke the run, Brie buried a college three-pointer to give St. Vincent a 21-14 lead with a little over two minutes remaining in the first half. Kate scored three more points in the second quarter as she drew a foul for one free-throw make and lastly euro-stepped through Skyline’s defense on a fast-break layup to put the Indians up 24-16.
St. Vincent then took the largest lead of the game at 26-16 thanks to the rebounding efforts of Allie’s sister 5-6 senior forward Mallory Patrick. She collected an offensive board and made a successful putback opportunity to keep the Tigers on the ropes.
The momentum was certainly in the Indians hands heading into the locker room, but an experienced Skyline team that had five senior starters, who all won state last year, proved to be too much in the second half.
The Tigers narrowed the Indians lead to 35-33 after the third quarter as Skyline then tied the game with six minutes left in regulation. Skyline took the lead and momentum thanks to a 3-pointer by one of the team’s sophomores Shelby Redd, who scored a team-high 18 points.
Tigers senior Kenzi Cheek paced Redd with 13 points, while Redd’s older sister, senior Sadie Redd, also scored in double figures at 12. Along with their spread out scoring, Skyline forced 12 turnovers as St. Vincent made eight on its own.
This led Skyline to beat the Indians 53-45 to repeat as Class 2 state champions as St. Vincent was forced to result in intentionally fouling the Tigers late in the game, which allowed Skyline to clinch the title at the free-throw line.
Kate Rubel was the only player for St. Vincent who recorded more than 10 points, continuing to prove — like she has all year — to be one of the best players in the entire Show-Me State. Kate did so by leading all scorers in the state championship game with 22 points (60 percent shooting) on top of her 7 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
“Whenever my first shot goes, I can feel where my shot at the glass is, and I just know where to put it after that,” Kate said. “It all definitely comes from my teammates by feeding me [the ball] and being confident in me.”
Allie Patrick paced Rubel with 8 points as half of her total came from the free-throw line, while the senior also had 5 rebounds, 3 blocks, 3 assists and 2 steals.
“I definitely think we gave it all we could, and we fought till the end,” Allie said. “We knew it was going to be a tough game, but we felt we were prepared for it.”
Brie had 3 assists and 3 rebounds of her own with 5 points, as fellow junior guard Lana Adams produced 4 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals. Robinson and Mallory Patrick were also big on the glass with 4 boards apiece.
Kate Rubel, who was actually the tallest player in the Class 2 Final Four, was also the key reason why the Indians reached the state title game in the first place as she had a career performance for a 56-50 victory over Tipton (27-5) in the semifinals.
Kate not only scored a team-high 25 points and shot 63 percent from the field against the Cardinals, but she also filled the stat sheet by recording a team-high 4 steals, 2 blocks and also had 2 assists.
Overall in this year’s final four, Kate Rubel averaged 23.5 points, 5 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks per game while shooting 61.2 percent from the field. She was named to the Class 2 Final Four All-Tournament Team by Prep Girls Hoops.
Rubel is no stranger to big games, as she’s starred on the AAU circuit with her twin sister Brie for a majority of their playing careers. The Rubel twins also, of course, played in the Class 5 Final Four two years ago while at Notre Dame.
“I call this ‘Summer Ball’ because it’s all man-to-man [defense], and I love summer ball and I love attacking the basket,” Kate said. “I’d rather not shoot the three — I’ve been trying to shoot it more — but I love attacking and getting the and-1. Just body to body, I love that stuff.”
Adams also had a game-changing performance for St. Vincent against Tipton by producing a double-double with 15 points and a game-high 12 rebounds on top of her 2 steals.
Another clutch Indian in the semifinals was Brie Rubel as she knocked down a three-pointer to take the lead over the Cardinals late in the fourth quarter. She finished with a total of 7 points on top of a game-high 5 assists.
Robinson was key from three-point range as well as she knocked down two of the Indians 4 three-pointers, while 5-3 senior guard Haley Emmendorfer hit the other three-point shot outside of Brie and Robinson.
Even though they didn’t bring home a state championship for St. Vincent, the “Feisty 15” will still forever be remembered with a banner and plaque at the school as the 2024-2025 Class 2 state runners-up.
“I think going into this season, we knew our talent, we knew how good we were and we all knew our roles,” Mallory Patrick said. “I feel like each of us have expanded our knowledge of the game to the younger girls, and we shared it with each and every one of us.
“... We’re really just all sisters. I know a lot of our last names are the same — about half the team — but we have no drama. Our chemistry is probably the best team chemistry out of any team I’ve been on and probably any team these girls have been on. We’re such a great group of girls — basketball is fun [for us] and practicing with these girls truly makes it amazing.”
These four seniors, including another 5-7 senior post Alivia Ellis, also helped pave the way for continued success as they accomplished all three team goals for this winter: win conference, win districts and make it to the state final four. They also broke their own program-win record of 24 with 27 wins this season.
The program will certainly miss these seniors and specifically a player like Allie, who will continue her basketball career at the college level.
“Some people might think we came up short, but I don’t think we really have anything to hang our heads about,” Allie said. “We came to state for the first time in school history, and there are so many memories to take with us. I know I’ll never forget it.”
Emmendorfer added on what she’ll miss most about the team is “the bickering,” she laughed. “We constantly joke around — everybody is always laughing,” Haley said. “Inside the gym or outside the gym, we’re just laughing and bickering. It’s just always a good time, but we were always serious when it mattered.”
St. Vincent is set to return four starters in the Rubel twins, Adams and Robinson, as junior varsity players like sophomores Aubrey Emmendorfer, Grace Jenneman, Paige Leible and Sophie Verseman hope to step into bigger roles next season.
This should lead the Indians faithful to believe that no matter what new challenges face St. Vincent next winter, this team will more than likely compete for a state championship once again.
“[Playing for a state title] meant everything to us — like, I was out there crying — it’s something we never thought we would get to do,” Kate Rubel said. “Then when you do it, it’s just an amazing thing.”
