In the 26th Annual Mayor’s Cup this past Saturday, the St. Vincent girls’ basketball team not only avenged last season’s loss, but the Indians utterly dominated their crosstown rival, Perryville, in front of a packed Perry Park Center.
After a 9-9 start to the contest, St. Vincent (16-2) went on a 32-5 run over the Pirates (7-10) to end the first half. The Indians only allowed Perryville to score eight more points in the contest for St. Vincent to record the second-largest win in Mayor’s Cup history with a 41-point, 63-22 final.
The Indians started the game a little differently than usual, with three new starters in the lineup: seniors Alivia Ellis, Haley Emmendorfer and Mallory Patrick.
These three have come off the bench for St. Vincent this season, but it is tradition for Indians head coach Mel Kirn to start all of his seniors in this rivalry game. They joined fellow senior Allie Patrick, along with another multi-year starter, junior Lana Adams, to tip the game off.
Adams, who finished the contest with a game and season-high 20 points, led the way to start by putting up six in the first. Lana also hit one of her game-high four 3-pointers through the first five minutes of action, as did Allie Patrick.
The three other usual starters for the Indians — the Rubel twins, juniors Brie and Kate Rubel, and fellow junior Rylee Robinson — didn’t enter the game until there were around three minutes left in the first quarter.
The pace of the contest certainly changed after the back-and-forth affair when the Rubel twins and Robinson came off the bench. They helped ignite the 27-point run with a unified style of play of in-your-face defense and controlled, aggressive offense.
Like Adams, Emmendorfer and Robinson also hit multiple 3s (two apiece) as both Indians finished with eight points, while they also each came down with four rebounds. Haley continued to show off on the offensive end by dishing out four assists, and Rylee tied Mallory Patrick for a game-high three steals.
In her first-ever basketball rivalry matchup against Perryville, Kate Rubel recorded her sixth-straight, double-digit scoring output with 10 points on top of her team-high six rebounds and one block.
Not only did Rubel continue to dominate defenders with her spins, euro steps and undeniable drives for easy lay-ins, but she pulled up over players and shot efficiently from the perimeter, knocking down 80 percent of her 2-point tries.
Allie Patrick paced Brie with five points, while her own twin sister Mallory had five boards, three steals and two assists. Ellis also had a nice outing in her final rivalry game versus the Pirates, producing four points and four rebounds.
Defensively, St. Vincent only allowed three Perryville players to score throughout the entire contest as sophomore Aby Amberger finished with 12 points of her team’s 22 points, half of them coming from the free-throw line. Fellow sophomore Zoe Hoehn paced her with eight points off two 3s.
This was the second time in the past three seasons the Indians have beaten Perryville by 30-plus points, as they recorded a 58-26 win two years ago. In last year’s Mayor’s Cup, where St. Vincent lost to the Pirates 39-30, the Indians were without Adams, Allie Patrick and the Rubel twins.
Outside of last week's rivalry matchup, St. Vincent moved to 2-0 in JCAA Small School Conference play with a 78-37 road win over Jefferson Festus (11-9, 1-1 JCAA). Allie Patrick did her best Caitlin Clark impersonation by hitting a season-high seven 3-pointers, finishing with 25 points, seven rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Kate Rubel had a 20-point performance against the Blue Jays, as well as she shot 64 percent from the field and knocked down a 3-pointer. Outside of combining for 45 points with Patrick, Rubel collected six boards and came up with three steals.
Brie Rubel was also crucial in St. Vincent’s second 41-point win of the week by posting her third double-double of the season. Rubel scored 11 points and continued to prove to be one of the top point guards in Missouri with a team-high 10 assists.
On top of that, Brie hauled in five rebounds and tied Allie for a game-high four steals. The quartet of Adams (seven points), Emmendorfer (five), Ellis (four) and Mallory Patrick (four) combined for 20 points outside of the Rubel twins and Allie’s combined 56 points.
The Indians will now face another JCAA opponent, Crystal City (10-9, 0-1), tonight at home, which fell to Grandview (5-10, 1-1) 63-35 last month, one week after St. Vincent beat the Eagles 68-22.
On Monday, the Indians will have Senior Night in their final conference and scheduled regular-season home game against Herculaneum (1-13, 0-1).
In the girls’ junior varsity game, the Lady Indians won 30 to 24 against the Lady Pirates.
