Hanover girls basketball dominates from start to finish to top John Stark in D2 semifinals (video)

MANCHESTER - Diana Schwarz knows that anything is possible in a playoff game.

Even what the Hanover High School girls basketball team did Tuesday night, as hard as it might have been to believe.

The top-seeded Marauders turned in a performance not often seen in a semifinal game, outscoring No. 5 John Stark by 27 points in the first half, including a 21-0 run, and Hanover rolled into the Division II title game with a 63-30 win over the Generals at Southern New Hampshire University.

The win sends Hanover to the final for the first time since 2016, where the Marauders will face No. 3 Kennett, which beat No. 2 Lebanon 49-42 in the other semifinal, at 7 p.m. Friday at SNHU.

The Marauders (20-1) recorded 20 steals, part of a 34-turnover night for John Stark, as the Generals almost the entire second quarter without scoring. Hanover turned those miscues into 32 points and outscored John Stark in the paint 50-20.

Schwarz finished with a game-high 15 points to go with nine steals and five assists while Anna Kirkpatrick (12 points) and Willet Parkins (10 points, six rebounds) came off the bench to score in double figures. Overall, Hanover's bench outscored John Stark's 30-2.

Maddie McCorkle added nine points, as the Marauders went on a 17-2 run to end the first quarter up 24-8.

"In the playoffs, you never know what to expect," Schwarz said. "It’s a hard gym to play in, so I was surprised that we came out with that kind of lead in the first quarter. Knowing our team, we’re fast, we’re good at running the floor, it’s just what we’re good at."

John Stark (17-4) got 11 points and 10 rebounds from Chelsea Woodsum and Anna Stenger had seven points and six boards, but the Generals struggled against Hanover's pressure. John Stark shot 32.4 percent from the field, including 1 for 10 in the second quarter and went almost eight minutes without a point.

"John Stark is a disciplined team," Hanover coach Dan O'Rourke said. "They are extremely well-coached, they usually don’t beat themselves, so I thought we had to maintain our discipline and not get antsy. We have a lot of athleticism and quickness and sometimes our kids get a little too excited and commit silly fouls.

"We didn’t do that. We stayed within our game plan, maintained pressure and on a big court like this, when you can go 10 deep, athleticism, quickness and depth can start to shine through."

The game looked like it might go back and forth, as the teams traded baskets early. John Stark went up 4-2 but Hanover scored five straight to take a 7-4 lead before Woodsum scored to cut the Marauders' lead to one with 4:02 left in the first quarter.

McCorckle then scored to give Hanover a 9-6 lead and O'Rourke went to his bench, subbing in four players, and the Marauders took off.

A turnover by John Stark led to a basket by Kirkpatrick at the other end, and after an offensive foul on Stenger, Schwarz made a layup. A third straight turnover by the Generals led to a fast break basket by Kirkpatrick and a 15-6 lead for Hanover.

Arianna Maxwell scored for John Stark with 1:01 left in the quarter to make it 17-8, but Hanover added seven unanswered points in the final minute to go up 16 points heading into the second.

Hanover scored the first 14 points of the second quarter to make it a 21-0 run and a 38-8 lead with 1:59 left in the half. A three-point play by Stenger with 1:14 remaining got the Generals into double digits and made it 38-11 at the break.

"My belief is no lead is safe in the playoffs," O'Rourke said. "When you start to get deeper into the game, 30 or 40 points becomes insurmountable. But certainly in the first half, you don’t know. What if a kid gets injured? What if they start hitting 3s and catch fire?

"I thought the first three minutes of the second half were critical to extinguish any hope they had of coming back. We talked at halftime that yes we feel great, but we have to win the first three minutes and thankfully we did that."

The Marauders were able to stretch the lead to 34 points to open the second half, going up 47-13 on a basket by Julia Golder with 5:13 to go in the third.

"It’s hard to trust any kind of lead, because you can always come back from that, especially when you’re fighting for playoff lives," Schwarz said. "Any team can come back from a 20-point lead. We just wanted to keep it up, to just play our game and keep the fast pace moving."