‘We’re all one team with one goal:’ Surging St. Vincent GBB poised for historic postseason run

SCOTT CITY — Brie Rubel spoke for every St. Vincent girls basketball player Monday night.

After the Lady Indians pummeled Scott City on the road with a 62-43 hammering, Rubel was asked to describe the identity of her team up to this point in the season.

“One,” the star junior said. “That would be my one word. We're all one team with one goal. We work hard together. We know just how well to work together. We do our best to find the open person, move the ball around, and we all just try and be one together.”

That’s how St. Vincent (22-2) has won basketball games this year — superb team chemistry built on selflessness and versatility.

The Lady Indians, backed by star newcomers Brie and Kate Rubel — nicknamed “The Splash Twins” — and a talented senior class, are aiming to make their deepest postseason run in program history in the ensuing weeks, as the "play as one” mentality has guided them to an unprecedented start.

The momentum carried over to Monday after St. Vincent took out Delta (20-4) on the road, 65-48, before breezing past the Lady Rams to cap a double-header. Brie Rubel, a sharp-shooting 5-foot-10 guard, with her sister Kate, senior Allie Patrick, and all kinds of weapons, made every shot, pass, and steal look routine.

After Scott City (3-17) found itself in a 17-3 hole just five minutes in, the Lady Indians stepped on the gas and pushed the lead to 46-16 at halftime.

In just two quarters of action, Brie Rubel dropped 19 points on 7-of-10 shooting, while Kate Rubel added 12 points and four rebounds and junior Rylee Robinson finished with 13. This came just several short hours after defeating one of the premier teams at the Class 1 level.

“The first part was just preparing ourselves physically,” said Brie Rubel, who also scored a team-high 21 points against Delta. “Then we went to Delta with a very hard mentality. We really wanted to focus and get after them and secure the first win, which we did, and that was our first goal. Really focus and work hard. The second goal was to come back here and work as hard as we can because Scott City is not a bad team by any means. We knew we needed to play to our best, and we knew that this would be a test to see how well we could bounce back from a hard game and also play a good game as well.”

St. Vincent guard Brie Rubel shoots a 3-pointer against Scott City on Monday, Feb. 17, at Scott City High School.Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

Last year, the shorthanded Lady Indians had their ups and downs.

With Patrick, senior Haley Emmendorfer, and Mizzou soccer commit Lana Adams all missing the majority of the year with knee injuries and the Rubels at Notre Dame, St. Vincent went 11-14 and failed to make it past the Class 2 District 4 Tournament semifinals after averaging just 47.4 points per game on the floor.

This year’s team is, well, different.

“Having three girls last year out with their ACLs that averaged 45 points with Haley, Allie, and Lana… that was a big gap last year,” head coach Mel Kirn said. “When you get all three of those girls back this year, plus the Rubels, Mallory (Patrick), Olivia (Winkler), Rylee, and then Lana, we’ve got a dang good team. Hopefully we can get to the Final Four. We’ve got a lot of games to go to get there, but they work hard in practice.”

Through 24 games, Brie Rubel has averaged 14 points and five assists per game (both team-highs) while draining 43 shots from beyond the arc. Equally as dominant is 6-foot-1 forward Kate Rubel, who has averaged 13 points, six rebounds (team-high), and 2.5 assists per game, while playing just as efficiently on the defensive end behind a team-high 26 blocked shots.

St. Vincent forward Kate Rubel shoots a free throw against Scott City on Monday, Feb. 17, at Scott City High School.Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

Allie Patrick has also been a staple. With a team-high 43 3s and 11.5 points per game, the senior, who went down with a season-ending ACL injury just five games in against Saxony Lutheran last year, has become such a consistent shooting threat, opponents are forced to defend the perimeter more honestly.

She is also the program’s all-time leader in 3-pointers (135) and second all-time leading scorer (1,022).

“I think after the injury I came back stronger,” said Patrick, who joined the 1,000-point club in the blowout win over Herculaneum on Feb. 10. “I'm really trying to get more involved in all aspects of my game now. I think last year and in the past, I've been mainly a shooter. So, I'm trying to get to the hoop more, be a passer, be a rebounder, and so on.”

St. Vincent senior Allie Patrick drives past a Scott City defender on Monday, Feb. 17, at Scott City High School.Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

The Lady Indians have won 10 straight since Jan. 21, with the two losses this season coming at the hands of reigning Class 4 state champion Lift for Life Academy Charter and reigning Class 4 state runner-up Park Hills Central, who St. Vincent defeated 56-33 in the season opener. The Lady Indians also captured their first JCAA Small School Conference Championship since the 2010-11 season and are just two wins shy of tying a program-record 24 wins set in 2022-23 when they won a district title.

Kirn’s squad is currently ranked fourth in Class 2, according to the most recent Missouri Basketball Coaches Association (MBCA) poll.

“They are one,” Kirn said. “They don't care who scores. They assist and spread out equally. They work together and get along together. It's like they've been playing together since first grade. We go to practice, they work hard together and they just walk through the door with a smile on their face. They want to be there playing ball.”

Before the 2024-25 girls basketball season started, Kirn said that if the defense came together, the Lady Indians would be able to have a chance against anybody.

And thanks to players like the Rubels, Adams (team-high 3.4 steals per game), and Mallory Patrick, who is the school’s all-time leading rebounder (379), it’s all worked out pretty much the way Kirn had hoped.

“How our defense was going to work together was the big thing,” Kirn said. “How they were going to cover together when somebody got beat and how they slide in and take the back doors away from people. Even how they switch on their screens. They're talking to each other about, “who's got this girl,” or, “who's got that girl,” and they're covering great for each other.”

The St. Vincent girls basketball team heads toward the sideline during halftime against Scott City on Monday, Feb. 17.Kaiden Karper ~ kkarper@semoball.com

Allie Patrick agreed, saying that St. Vincent’s best offense is its defense.

“I think we all realize that our offense comes from our defense,” she said. “The easiest way to score is to play good defense that transitions into it. I think at the beginning of season we were really focused on our man-on-man and our pressure defense on the ball. Now we're getting our rotations down, and we're really working well as a team as a defensive unit. So, it’s not just that we don't have one good defender. We have a whole team of defenders now. And I think going into the postseason, we're clicking on all cylinders.”

Indeed they are.

As the Lady Indians close out the regular season this Thursday, Feb. 20, with a pivotal District 3 clash against Chaffee (16-5) — if winter weather permits — Brie Rubel and her teammates are ultra-confident they have what it takes to make this postseason a historical one.

“We're just going to keep pushing,” Brie Rubel said. “It's all about working hard and finalizing everything. And then if we do play Chaffee we're going to try and take it to them. They're a good team, so we know we're going to have to be mentally prepared, physically prepared and ready to make a mark with a statement going into districts. So, we’re really going to try to finalize our season and keep playing together as a whole.”

It’s what St. Vincent girls basketball does best — play as “one.”