NATICK – Every team needs a Zoe Rabinovitz. A dive on the floor, lift the team up type. To display intangibles not notated on the stats page.
Set a screen. Break a press. That was her in a scrum for a loose ball on the halfcourt logo with Natick’s Kayla Dunlap Tuesday night.
But there is more to Rabinovitz’s game than doing all the “little things.”
She scored the first points – a 3-pointer – and later added another from distance in the fourth quarter of the playoff win over Natick.
If league MVP Allie Regan makes Framingham’s engine purr, Rabinovitz keeps it from rattling.
When junior captain Grace Hanna – “the Marcus Smart of our team,” says coach Kristen Audet-Fucarile – was lost for the season in December due to a torn ACL, a key role opened. Rabinovitz, a senior, has filled it admirably.
Sometimes with Smart-like effort, sometimes Tatum-like. Brookline, another Bay State Conference foe, knows this well.
Rabinovitz scored a season-high 19 points – along with grabbing nine rebounds – against the Warriors on Feb. 11. In a first-round playoff win over Brookline last week, she totaled 18 points, seven assists and six rebounds.
“If someone’s not having a great night, I hope I can step in and do what the team needs – whether it’s rebounding or taking care of the ball or shooting some nights,” she said after Tuesday’s 44-37 win over Natick.
“She is one of our most improved players,” Audet-Fucarile said. “She’s stepped it up.”
The honorable mention league all-star is the team’s third leading scorer behind Allie and Stephie Regan. Rabinovitz averages 11 points and seven rebounds per game and has made 45 deflections (yes, there’s a stat for that).
She can play in the paint, but also colors outside the (3-point) lines.
“She’s one of those players that when it’s crunch time, or if it’s early in the game, she wants to set the pace,” Audet-Fucarile said. “If she hits that first shot, it’s almost like it clicks with her, she’s going to keep letting it fly. Sometimes, when she doesn’t make the first shot, she finds other ways to contribute.”
One of just four seniors – along with Maddie Gorney, Brihanna Diaz and Allie Regan – Rabinovitz is also called upon for leadership. Another key role for a team that lost Hanna and is making its deepest playoff run in years.
The Flyers play at Springfield Central on Friday (6 p.m.) in the Elite 8, a round they have not appeared in since Denise Beliveau and the Flyers went 15-8 in 2006-07 and lost to undefeated Needham in the South sectional finals, the equivalent of today’s round of eight.
“That’s something I take big pride in,” Rabinovitz said of being a team leader. “Like, if I’m not having a good night, that’s something I can still contribute to. Keeping our team together and keeping us on the right track.”
The lean years are over. The 2010s included an 0-20 season and two other one-win winters. But with the arrival of Katie Regan and Selina Monestime just before the current decade began, the Flyers are making March basketball an annual occasion.
“It’s really rewarding,” Rabinovitz said. “I’ve been playing with really high-caliber players my entire career here and learning from them. And now being in that position this year, it’s a great feeling.”
