St. Vincent girls crush Park Hills Central in hoops season opener

FARMINGTON — In a star-studded matchup with a 9:40 a.m. tipoff, St. Vincent girls basketball lived up to the hype in its season opener with a 56-33 victory over Park Hills Central.

Using a big defensive stand early to pull ahead, the Indians won each quarter in the second game of the Amped Lifestyle Girls basketball Shootout at the Farmington Civic Center to easily seal their first game of the year.

One stat rings loud and true: Not once last season did the Park Hills Central Rebels score 33 or less points in a game. In fact, its low for the season was 44.

Even more interesting, the loss was the largest suffered by Park Hills Central since March 2021, and the largest regular-season loss since January 2013, to Vashon and Dexter, respectively.

It’s a time of celebration for St. Vincent faithful all around, as while the football team heads to semifinals, the volleyball team celebrates a state final-four appearance and the cross country teams continue to make big strides forward at state, girls basketball is making its statement.

The St. Vincent Indians are ready, able and excited to make a run at the MSHSAA Class 2 girls basketball state championship, and it looked no more evident than in their thrashing victory to open the season.

“It feels awesome,” Indians coach Mel Kirn said.

“Our girls have taken pride in their defense. They work hard in practice. They don’t care who scores, and our defense leads into our scoring a lot.”

The loss dropped Park Hills Central, which ventured all the way into the Class 4 championship game before losing to Lift For Life, to 0-1 in the new year after going an impressive 27-5 last season. The Rebels haven’t won less than 20 games since the 2012-13 season.

The win improved St. Vincent to 1-0, opening the season up with an Amped Lifestyle Girls Basketball Shootout victory against one of the very best outside team in the field.

For the Rubel twins, in their first season with St. Vincent after two years at Notre Dame, it was a second consecutive game against the Rebels after bowing out in last year’s Class 4 sectionals, and they looked far and away like veterans in the first game of the year.

Joined by senior Allie Patrick and junior Lana Adams, who missed much of the season last year as St. Vincent was largely led by now-junior Rylee Robinson, the Indians never trailed.

“We knew that Park Hills has got a great team,” Kirn said. “We knew it was gonna be a tough game in here, but our girls came in here and they weren’t scared.

“Our girls just kept playing hard and as the game kept going, our girls got more confident that they could compete.”

St. Vincent got out to a game-opening 6-0 run that helped build its confidence as Park Hills Central struggled to get on the scoreboard, eventually finishing the opening frame up 10-2.

Led by senior guard Allie Patrick, who hit a couple of early 3-pointers to build up that lead, it was all Indians by the half as they’d ballooned that lead to 13 points at 20-7.

Holding a reigning Class 4 runner-up squad to just seven points in its opening half of the season was sweet redemption for the Rubel twins as they helped to stymie a Rebel squad that’d brought an end to their season a few months ago.

What started as a sluggish first half for the offense quickly turned around as the shooting picked up in the second half, with both St. Vincent and Park Hills Central trading buckets as Allysa O’Connor of the Rebels got hot.

After the teams combined for just 27 points in the first half, they combined to score a whopping 31 points in the third quarter, as the Indians entered the final frame up 37-21.

A strong finish sealed this one out for the Indians, dribbling out the clock to the tune of a 56-33 victory to open up the season in a semi-road game against a very stout Park Hills Central side.

O’Connor finished with a game-high 26 points for the Rebels, accounting for 79% of the Rebels’ scoring as, outside of the senior Culver-Stockton commit, Park Hills Central scored just seven total points over 32 minutes.

Patrick got the MVP award for the Indians from the tournament officials, scoring a team-high 20 points on 4-of-7 shooting from 3-point range, 67% overall from the field.

Brie Rubel’s 10 points and four assists led the offense for the Indians, while Lana Adams added another seven points, plus six assists and seven rebounds — nearing triple-double territory as she and Rubel both recorded two steals.

Kate Rubel, despite largely staying off the scoreboard, recorded seven rebounds and blocked two shots to facilitate a monstrous St. Vincent defensive effort.