Sports

Moore’s confident Rubin beats buzzer, Mary Louis

Moore Catholic's Christina Rubin scored 25 points Saturday.

Moore Catholic’s Christina Rubin scored 25 points Saturday. (William Thomas)

Gabriella Rubin could hear her sister Christina screaming her name for a pass, but the only voice she was going to listen to was her own.

“In my head I was like, ‘I got to ignore her,’” said Gabriella Rubin, a sophomore. “I had the lane. A layup was better than a 3-pointer.”

With Mary Louis up one with seven seconds left, the Hilltoppers took away Christina Rubin, who is headed to Iona, and forced the ball out of Lafayette-bound guard Jamie O’Hare’s hands. She passed it to a wide open Gabriella Rubin up the right sideline on the press. She dropped her head, drove left across the court and was fouled scoring over TMLA forward Jordan Agustus at the buzzer.

“It was just the best feeling in the world,” Gabriella Rubin said. “I’m going to have this smile on my face the whole entire day.”

It was her first-ever game-winner and it handed the Mavericks a thrilling, 65-64 victory over Mary Louis at the Rose Classic Super Jam girls basketball event Saturday afternoon at Bishop Ford. The basket came after Agustus was fouled off a great pass from Mei-Lyn Bautista and made 1-of-2 free throws to put the Hilltoppers ahead. Moore coach Rich Postiglione has been stressing to Gabriella Rubin not to defer to the team’s older players.

“Instead of saying, ‘Where is the senior?’ I’ve asked her to be tough,” he said. “She is capable of making plays. If you noticed, she didn’t do anything but go to the basket.”

Christina Rubin led all scorers with 25 points, Gabriella Rubin had 17 and O’Hare added 12 for Moore (8-2), ranked No. 8 in the city by The Post. All three play for Mary Louis assistant coach Kevin White’s NYC Heat travel program. Jasmine Nwajei paced No. 7 Mary Louis (6-8) with 21 points, Bautista had 14 and Agustus, who was limited by foul trouble in the first half, had 11. Nwajei and Agustus, who was a matchup problem for Moore, were late for the game and did not start.

“It’s always good to beat Kevin White,” Christina Rubin said with a smile.

Mary Louis, last season’s CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens runner up, led Moore, the defending Archdiocesan champion, 21-10 after one quarter. Moore used a 1-3-1 zone to rally for a 31-28 lead at the half. The Mavericks pushed the advantage to 41-31 after three, only to see Mary Louis, which scored off its pressure for stretches of the game, go on a 13-0 run sparked by Nwajei to go ahead 44-41 with 1:29 left in the third. TMLA opened up a 59-55 advantage with 3:53 left in the game.

“It gave you the feeling that if we would have played another 20 minutes we would have had another 20 lead changes,” Postiglione said.

Gabriella Rubin finally swung the momentum back in Moore’s favor. She connected on a 3-pointer to start a quick 8-0 run, that included two Taylor Robertson free throws, and Christina Rubin’s trey gave her team a 63-59 lead with 3:00 left in the game. TMLA got even on two Bautista free throws and a Nwajei layup with 1:42 left to knot things at 63.

“We put ourselves in a position to win games, we just need to finish them out,” Mary Louis coach Joe Lewinger said. “We just have to start executing.”

In his mind they did on the final play, getting the ball out of the hands of Christina Rubin and O’Hare. Gabriella Rubin’s hands, however, were more than capable.

“They gave me the lane because they thought I was going to pass it to Christina,” Gabriella Rubin said. “I heard Christina screaming, but I knew I had to go to the hoop.”

jstaszewski@nypost.com