Rich Postiglione’s former plight became his saving grace.
For three years, the Moore Catholic coach watched Jamie O’Hare create nightmares against his squads when she was with St. Peter’s, including in a tiebreaker game last year helping keep the Eagles’ 16-year CHSAA Staten Island winning streak alive.
“This kid tortured me for three years,” Postiglione said. “In the Island championship game last year that we lost in overtime, she had [12] rebounds. The kid has a knack for going after the ball particular on the offensive end.”
That was again the case when the Mavericks needed it most. The 5-foot-5 O’Hare, who went to Moore after St. Peter’s closed, finished off one of the finest performance of her high school career with five straight points off putbacks in the final minutes against a Spellman team that features three 6-footers.
Fellow senior Christina Rubin finished an 8-0 run with a three-point play of her own to seal top-seeded Moore’s 68-61 win over the Pilots in the CHSAA Archdiocesan Class AA girls basketball championship game at St. John Villa on Friday night. It is the Mavericks’ fourth straight diocesan crown and second consecutive at the ‘AA’ level. Moore (20-5) next faces the CHSAA Brooklyn/Queens runner up in the Catholic Class AA state playoffs 4 p.m. March 7 at St. Francis Prep.
“It just happened,” said O’Hare, who is headed to Lafayette. “I didn’t want them to get the rebound because they were just out rebounding us the last three quarter. I just tried to get it in there.”
She finished with a game-high 29 points and knocked down six of the Mavericks 12 3-pointers, many of them answering Spellman runs. The Iona-bound Rubin poured in 26 points, including four treys, and younger sister Gabriella Rubin had 10 points. Taylor Robertson and Dina Motrechuk gave them a lift on the boards.
“We tried to create an outside game and thank God our shots were dropping,” O’Hare said.
Northeastern-bound wing Onia Webb led Spellman (21-6) with 18 points, Nicole Awooner-Renner had 15 points and Maria Backman added 10. The Pilots are hoping to get injured guard Vanessa Stephens (knee) back for next week’s CHSAA Class A city playoffs. The teams split the two regular-season meetings with Moore winning in blowout fashion and Spellman taking the most recent game.
“It was like redemption,” Christina Rubin said. “I can sleep at night now.”
Spellman coach Jane Morris saw the game mirroring her team’s win in the second quarter. Moore’s 3-pointers were not falling and Spellman controlled the glass thanks to Awooner-Renner and Webb, who was handling the ball with point guard Joy Tirado in foul trouble. The Pilots led 22-21 with 3:21 left in the first half.
“Then [the Mavericks] found their rhythm and that’s pretty much it,” said Morris, who feels like her team can play with anyone in the playoffs.
O’Hare banged a second of three straight treys from the left side to spark a 13-4 run to end the half to put her team up 34-26. After the Pilots got within four early in the third, Gabriella Rubin buried a triple. Moore began relying on its long-range game to combat Spellman’s size advantage.
“This was a game for the tough,” Postiglione said. “You had to be a tough team to hold them off today. … It’s very hard to win when you are trying to win from the perimeter.”
A 6-0 Spellman run to close the third quarter got it within 51-48 heading into the fourth. Webb scored four straight points to cut the Moore lead to 56-54 with 4:27 left in the game before O’Hare took over. That was as close as they got before O’Hare had a three-point play on the next possession, hustling to a Christina Rubin miss that was off the mark and put it back in.
“I thought Jamie played an unbelievable fourth quarter,” Postiglione said. … “We didn’t get anything going to the hoop all game and in the fourth quarter Jamie gets there twice.”
