Hanover girls basketball uses depth, size to knock off Kennett in D2 title game (video)

MANCHESTER - The Hanover High School girls basketball team wasn't too concerned about the score at halftime of Friday night's Division II championship game.

So long as the pace was where the Marauders wanted it, and they were able to get up and down the court quickly, their depth and size would be a big factor in the second half.

As it turned out, No. 1 Hanover was able to use those two attributes to a take a nine-point lead in the first half and wore down No. 3 Kennett in the second for a 52-41 win at Southern New Hampshire University. The championship is Hanover's first since 2008 and sixth overall.

The Marauders (21-1) had nine players play at least 11 minutes, getting points from seven of them, including 15 points from junior Maddie McCorkle while senior Julia Golder had 11 points and seven rebounds. Diana Schwarz and Willet Parkins added six points each for Hanover.

As a team, Hanover controlled the boards, outrebounding the Eagles 44-30, including 19 offensive rebounds, which led to 18 second-chance points.

"We said the key to this game was going to be three Rs – relax, rebound and run," Hanover coach Dan O'Rourke said. "We did that. We weren’t nervous. We had two good days of practice. The kids rebounded the heck out of the ball that led to easy putbacks. And then use our athleticism and speed, and this court fits our team very well."

Kennett (20-2) only played seven, with the starting five playing at least 28 minutes, including three who played the entire game. As the game got deeper, the pace got to the Eagles, who shot 30 percent from the field, including 25.6 percent after the first quarter.

"They played their tempo and took us out of our game early and we were never really able to recover," Kennett coach Larry Meader said. "They killed us on the boards. We could just never get our game going and we had a horrible night shooting. It wasn’t one of our best nights.

"Credit Hanover. Their defense and the tempo they were running us at tended to make us rush shots. We were able to hang around, the kids played hard the entire time, can’t blame any lack of effort. It wasn’t our shooting night."

Maddie Stewart had 14 points and four assists to lead Kennett and Isabel Wrobleski was also in double figures with 10 points and grabbed seven rebounds, while Cassidy Chick had four points and 13 boards.

The teams traded baskets early in the first quarter and the game was tied 9-9 at the midpoint of the frame. With 3:39 to go, O'Rourke made a line change, bringing in four players who hadn't touched the floor yet, and Hanover ended the quarter on an 8-2 run to lead 17-11 going into the second.

"We consider ourselves two (starting units)," O'Rourke said. "We have our starters and our other starters. One of the keys to our success this year is that we can go 10 deep and again, our second group extended the lead."

Having that depth helped the Marauders play with more confidence, knowing there was someone who could come off the bench to provide support.

"Just keeping the pace, make them play to our game," McCorkle said. "When we do that, we have fresh legs coming in constantly. We can play anyone on our bench. If you get tired, you know you have a sub coming."

Hanover was able to push the lead to 10 points in the second quarter, but Kennett did whatever it could to stay within single digits throughout the remainder of the first half. But the Marauders rebounding advantage on the offensive end had led to 14 points, which Meader felt made a big different in the half.

"I think we could have been ahead if we didn’t allow those offensive rebounds in the first half," he said. "We had plenty of looks. We played some good defense. We held them scoreless for quite a while in the second quarter and the third quarter. We were never able to score. We were one shot and done and they were two, three, four shots."

The Marauders led 29-20 at the half and a basket by Golder to open the third made it an 11-point game before a layup and then a 3-pointer by Wrobleski cut the lead to 31-25.

But Hanover ended the quarter on a 10-3 run, scoring all five baskets in the paint, and led 41-28 going into the fourth quarter. The Marauders had just one field goal in the fourth quarter, and Kennett was able to get the lead down to seven points with 1:13 to play, but Hanover went 9 of 12 from the free throw line to put the game away.

"Everyone did a great job," McCorkle said. "Playoffs are hard and anything can happen. We’ve been in situations where we’re down, but no one gets down on themselves. We push each other to push harder. We know it might not work now, but by the fourth quarter, things are going to go our way."