For the second time in three years on Saturday, the St. Vincent girls’ basketball team brought a district championship back home to Perryville.
The No. 1 seeded Indians (24-3) did so in dominant fashion by capturing the Class 2 District 3 title with a 30-point, 55-25 rout of No. 2 seed and tournament-host Chaffee (17-7).
This was actually a MBCA Class 2 Top 10 matchup as No. 4 St. Vincent proved yet again that it is, in fact, a state championship contender and is now just two wins away from making its first-ever state final four.
Defensively, the Indians held the No. 10 ranked Red Devils to 12 points under their previous season-low scoring total of 37 as Chaffee only produced single digits in the first (six), second (six), and fourth quarters (three).
St. Vincent came up with a total of 20 steals to win the turnover margin by seven and also blocked three of the Red Devils shot attempts.
Moving over to the offense, St. Vincent’s Big Three of senior Allie Patrick and the Rubel twins, juniors Brie Rubel and Kate Rubel, combined for 48 of their team’s 55 points.
Patrick had nothing short of a clutch performance as she nearly outscored Chaffee herself with a game-high 21 points and seven 3-pointers, shooting nearly 80 percent (77.7) for the game.
In front of a packed crowd at Chaffee, Allie even delivered what she described as the “crowd-silencer” when she sank a buzzer-beating trey at the end of the third quarter, giving the Indians a 46-22 lead.
“I always like a good crowd-silencer — I don’t like to talk like that, but it felt good, and it was a confidence booster,” Patrick said. “This season has been a dream come true — it’s like a storybook ending to come into my final district tournament and have a performance like that after missing last year [with a torn ACL].”
Looking at the top point guard in Southeast Missouri, Brie Rubel knocked down one of St. Vincent’s nine 3-pointers and also attacked Chaffee’s defense head-on, slicing and dicing the Red Devils for 13 points and dishing out two assists.
Brie Rubel also flew around the court the entire game with unmatched effort, coming up with a team-high four steals and finishing with the second-most rebounds at seven.
Fellow junior Lana Adams also played with high intensity throughout the game, tying Brie with four takeaways as well, hauling in eight boards and recording a game-high seven assists.
Overall, St. Vincent finished the game with a total of 18 assists as seven different Indians recorded at least one, as junior Rylee Robinson, who also hit an early 3-pointer, finished second behind Adams with three.
“As a team, we know everyone can [be the leading scorer], so if I’m not having a good night, someone like Allie is,” Kate Rubel said about St. Vincent's unselfish style of play. “That’s what our team is about — someone is always having a great night, and Allie had a great night right whenever we needed it.”
Brie added, “Everyone is working their butt off to be open or help the other person, so I think it’s a big team chemistry thing. We’re always there to support each other, whether it's if my shot isn’t going in, but Allie’s is. We’re always going to lift each other up.”
As for Kate, she finished the game second in scoring, pacing Patrick with 14 points of her own as she shot 62.5 percent from the field and went 4-of-5 from the free-throw line.
This was Kate Rubel’s fourth-straight game producing at least 14 points or more as she’s been scoring at all three levels for St. Vincent with her strong pull-up shots and natural ability to work her way to the rim.
Against Chaffee, not only did Kate show off her finesse, but she also asserted dominance by powering her way through contact to the bucket for momentum-switching lay-ins as well as and-1 opportunities.
On defense, Rubel came up with two steals to Patrick’s three, while Kate also swatted one shot to bring her season block total to 27 as senior Alivia Ellis notched a game-high two blocks.
St. Vincent’s other seniors Haley Emmendorfer and Mallory Patrick were also crucial to the 30-point win as they combined for five takeaways (Haley three, Mallory two) and three assists (Haley two, Mallory one).
With the victory over Chaffee, the Indians have now tied their most single season wins in school history of 24, which they set two seasons ago before falling in the state sectionals.
St. Vincent reached this year’s district final with a 66-27 thrashing of No. 5 seed Charleston (5-18) as the Indians elected to have a running clock for the entire second half.
In the first half for the Indians, Kate Rubel scored a game-high 17 points with four assists, three rebounds and two steals, while Brie Rubel flirted with a triple-double at 15 points (two 3s), seven steals, and six assists.
On top of her four rebounds, four steals, and three assists, Allie Patrick also scored double-digit points (11) to combine for 43 with the Rubel twins against the Blue Jays.
This is the third-straight district championship for Brie and Kate Rubel, as they previously won two when they played at Notre Dame in Cape, having led the Bulldogs to the Class 5 Final Four as freshmen.
“This is just amazing — it’s fun, and it’s definitely different, but it’s a whole lot of fun,” Kate said about winning with a new school. Brie added, “Same sport, different team — I love it. It’s amazing to do the same thing with a new group.”
The Indians have certainly generated a lot of support from their hometown as St. Vincent fans easily packed half, if not more, of the entire Chaffee gymnasium for the district tournament.
Having this type of crowd support is a testament not only to the talent on the court these Indians possess but also to the togetherness they have both on and off it, which is what the Perryville community is all about.
“I think more of the crowd was Perryville, which is so special,” Kate said. “I think it’s so cool that this town does that.” Brie agreed, saying, “It was different because this year we had more of our crowd with us [the entire season], so it’s really great to have that support.”
St. Vincent is now set to host St. Paul Lutheran (20-7) in the Class 2 sectional on Tuesday, March 4, at Perryville High School.
Should the Indians win, they would then face either No. 7 ranked Neelyville (22-5) or Malden (17-8) in the state quarterfinal this Saturday on the road.
With a victory in the quarterfinals, St. Vincent would then officially punch its ticket to the Class 2 Final Four next weekend in Columbia.
“This has been my goal all four years — make it to the state final four,” Patrick said. “I’ve been telling my teammates all week it’s go time, so we’re taking it one game at a time. We have a big test Tuesday at home, but we definitely think we have the capabilities here.”
“We’re all pulling for each other as much as any team I’ve ever been on — I’ve never been on a team that cares so much about each other on and off the court. It’s always about, ‘How can I make YOU better,’ because making each other better makes ourselves better.”
