WATERLOO, Ill. — The St. Vincent Lady Indians (12-4) went on the road Jan. 21, and despite a few nail-biting moments, came home with another victory, topping the Waterloo Lady Bulldogs (8-15) 52-47.
“They’ve got a really scrappy ball club up there,” said St. Vincent coach Mel Kirn. “They play a 2-3 defense, and I’ll tell you what, they were really on it. We had a problem stopping their layups a couple of times.”
St. Vincent built a 12-8 lead in the first quarter, but Waterloo stayed in it, outscoring the Lady Indians 16-8 in the second quarter to take a 24-20 lead into halftime.
By the end of the third quarter, St. Vincent trailed 38-27, raising some questions in Kirn’s mind.
“We thought, ‘Oh, boy, what’s going to happen here?’” Kirn said. “Starting out in the fourth quarter, they hit a three right away, and I called the timeout. We went over some strategy, changed our defense up a little bit and had things lined up there a little bit.”
Those changes worked, as the Lady Indians finished the game on a 25-6 run to set the final margin. A large part of the credit for that, Kirn said, went to senior Rylee Robinson and junior Sophie Verseman, who scored 8 points each in the final quarter.
“Rylee really stepped up there in the fourth quarter,” Kirn said. “We put Sophie in there, and that was one of her better games that she’s had all year. She’s really doing a good job for us."
While they certainly played a large role, Kirn said they don’t get all the credit.
“Then there was our defense,” Kirn said. “I can’t say enough about Paige Leible and Aubrey Emmendorfer. They and Brie Rubel, they made Waterloo turn the ball over there in that fourth quarter. And the other girls stepped up as well. They were 7-of-8 at the free-throw line there in the fourth quarter. That really helped too.”
Rubel led the Lady Indians with 14 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals; followed by Verseman with 12 points; Kate Rubel with 11 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists; and Robinson with 10 points.
“[Scoring] was really distributed really good, pointwise,” Kirn said. “We played a scrappy ball club. They were tall. They had some girls that could really shoot and they got out there and ran a lot. They did, they did a lot of snowbirding on us. They’d sneak that one girl out there and then get some fast breaks. Finally, there in the fourth quarter, we took that away from them. We ended up coming back and playing really good defense and won that ballgame.”
Nichole Gum was the only Lady Bulldog to reach double digits in scoring, finishing with 17 points, including 3 three-pointers. Seven of the eight Waterloo players on the lineup put points on the board.
ST. VINCENT 49, HILLSBORO 44
A fast start followed by a slow middle forced the St. Vincent Lady Indians to play from behind in the fourth quarter, as they edged the Hillsboro Lady Hawks (11-2) by five points at the St. Vincent gymnasium in Perryville on Jan. 19.
“Hillsboro, I think, is ranked number eight in the state,” said St. Vincent coach Mel Kirn. “I thought that was pretty good for us. They have a really good ball club. But our kids came out there and did really well.”
After building a 16-10 lead in the first quarter, St. Vincent had a rougher time in the second, as Hillsboro finished on a 14-3 run to take a 24-19 lead into the half. After the break, they extended their lead to 36-21.
“In the fourth quarter, Kate Rubel came up with nine points,” Kirn said. “Rylee Robinson hit a big three for us, and Paige Leible hit a big two going down the stretch there in the fourth quarter to pull that out.”
More than half of St. Vincent’s offense came at the hands of Rubel, who scored a game-high 25 points and was the only Lady Indian to reach double digits in scoring. Robinson, a fellow senior, finished with 9.
“Kate had a hell of a night,” Kirn said. “She started the game out with 3 three-pointers in a row. When you do that, it gets you pumped and going. But our defense is what won it for us. We came back and played some really good defense there in the fourth quarter and held them to eight points and we come away with a victory.”
Hillsboro was led by Ashley Hilton with 22 points, followed by Ava Hildebrand with 10.
