Top-seeded St. Vincent GBB blasts Charleston 66-27 in Class 2 District 3 semifinals

CHAFFEE – Satisfaction is hard to come by for a player like Kate Rubel.

When push comes to shove, most high-level high school girls’ basketball players tend to feel that way when holding such lofty standards in the pursuit of perfection.

Rubel became a little more perfect on Thursday night as the junior forward dropped a game-high 17 points to lead No. 1 overall seed St. Vincent to a 66-27 beatdown over No. 5 Charleston in its Class 2 District 3 Tournament semifinal matchup at Chaffee High School.

Rubel knocked down shots from the start and scored all of her points in the opening half as the Lady Indians rolled to the district championship game.

“It all just comes from my teammates,” Rubel said. “They just pass the ball around so well to get it to me inside. So, it's a whole team effort.”

While Rubel was terrific, hot-shooting St. Vincent (23-3) was just as dominant protecting the net as it was putting the ball in it.

The Lady Indians forced a plethora of turnovers and held Charleston (5-18) to single digits with two minutes left in the first-half. Things were essentially over midway through the first quarter before St. Vincent jumped ahead 55-12 at halftime.

“We all just work really well together and just know how to push the ball,” Rubel said. “Charleston has great speed, so it's like, ‘how can we contain them or their point guard?’ We all just work really well trying to get our defense in the right rotation.”

Brie Rubel turned in another fine performance behind 15 points, while star senior Allie Patrick and Mizzou soccer commit Lana Adams added 11 and seven, respectively.

“We're always able to set each other up for success,” said Patrick, who received an offer from William Jewell College earlier this week. “To know that they're always looking for me and make me as good as a player that I can be just makes it easy. It makes the game so easy to play with them.”

Holly Haynes scored a team-high 11 points to lead the Blue Jays, while senior Treasure Kimble added eight.

St. Vincent entered this year's district tournament as the heavy favorite after dominating the area all season long. Kirn is looking for his second district championship, while the Lady Indians are also in pursuit of earning their first state championship in school history.

When Kate Rubel and St. Vincent is playing their best, it's a program that can score, defend and rebound at a rate worthy of a team that can cut down the nets two weeks from now at the state tournament.

“It's our effort and our heart really," Kate Rubel said. "We all work our butts off on and off the court. We all want to do it. There’s no one here who's kind of like, ‘hey, I'd rather score more than win.’ We all want to win.”

Next up for the powerhouse Lady Indians is Chaffee in Saturday's district title game. St. Vincent head coach Mel Kirn said it boils down to his team sticking to its guns and playing with the same mentality as any game.

“We’ve got to play our game,” Kirn said. “We know Chaffee is good; they have a good record and their coach does a fine job with them. They’ve got some really good players on their team and we’ve got good players. So, it's going to be a good matchup.

"We're going to get out there and scrap like we've done all year, and we're going to try to bring the district title back home to Perryville.”

Patrick agrees with her coach.

“We know it's going to be a test, but we've been preparing for this for months now,” she said. “We're really excited to get to test ourselves and make ourselves better and to go out there and get that title.”

St. Vincent takes on No. 2 seed Chaffee in the Class 2 District 3 championship at Chaffee High School on Saturday, Mar. 1, at 1:30 p.m.