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# Hanover girls basketball coach gave semifinal win a thumb's up
- URL: https://www.nh-highschoolsports.com/hanover-coach-gave-semifinal-win-lebanon-thumbs/
- Published: 2016-03-10T21:40:29.000Z
- Updated: 2016-03-10T21:40:29.000Z
- Description: MANCHESTER - Dan O'Rourke gave a thumb's up to the play that led to the winning basket for the Hanover High School girls basketball team. Literally. With the fifth-seeded Marauders tied with undefeated Portsmouth late in Monday's Division II semifinal, Hanover was set to inbound the ball from the fa
- Author: Joe Marchilena
- Tags: Division II, girls basketball, Hanover, playoffs, Portsmouth, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-18 04:44

MANCHESTER - Dan O'Rourke gave a thumb's up to the play that led to the winning basket for the Hanover High School girls basketball team.

Literally.

With the fifth-seeded Marauders tied with undefeated Portsmouth late in Monday's Division II semifinal, Hanover was set to inbound the ball from the far sideline from its bench, near its own basket. O'Rourke surveyed where everyone was on the floor and gave his girls the signal.

"There's a thumbs up and a thumbs down signal," the coach said. "They were in the correct lineup to go thumbs up and we caught them."

Caroline Merguerian found Silke Milliman streaking to the basket behind the Portsmouth defense and the Hanover freshman laid it in to give the Marauders a 42-40 lead with a little more than a minute to play.

"We have two guards on either side and they cut through," Milliman said. "Then the person on the back will set a screen for me and I'll come around. They don't see it coming because they're focused on the two guards cutting through. I was almost nervous to take it, but I was really excited when it did because I wanted to win so bad."

That was an outcome that didn't seem likely not too long before, as Portsmouth led 31-19 midway through the third quarter.

But not long after Libby Underwood gave the Clippers their biggest lead of the game, the Marauders started a 3-point barrage, going 4 of 7 from behind the arc in a five-plus minute stretch.

Hanover took a 35-34 lead with 6:16 to play on a 3 by Milliman, but the biggest basket during that stretch came from Merguerian, who hit a 3 from the corner at the buzzer to end the third quarter.

"Thankfully, we hit three or four 3s that gave us momentum," O'Rourke said. "I thought the 3 to end the third quarter really got us going. The entire bench came to life after that. With young kids, I didn't want them to focus on being down 12 because I thought they'd panic. Just one basket at a time and one play at a time and grind it out."

Like her coach, Merguerian thought it was just going to be a matter of time before the Marauders started making those shots.

"My teammates found and it was great that they found me when I had time to get it off," she said. "I have confidence that I can make my shots. That made the defense become honest, and open the middle up to get layups. It was just our game when we could go inside-out. Try to get the inside game, but also look outside. By that point, we needed to hit shots because they were collapsing inside."

Now Hanover moves on the championship game for the first time since 2009, where it will face a team in Goffstown that it beat twice during the regular season, including a 54-33 win on Feb. 16.

"They're battle tested and they have four seniors," O'Rourke said. "They played a heck of a game in the championship last year. Both teams are 0-0\. Whether we beat them twice during the season doesn't matter. We've got to focus on fundamentals."