Hanover
O’Rourke equated his team’s consistent success to a focus on basketball fundamentals. Sophomore Diana Schwarz pointed to Hanover’s underdog role — given the inexperience label — which convinces the Marauders to work even harder. Freshman star Maddie McCorkle pointed to a common goal of winning.
Whatever the reason for Hanover’s success, it was on display in Friday night’s 63-42 win over Con-Val as the Marauders — now 6-2 in New Hampshire — jumped out to a 20-point lead at halftime and never gave it up to stretch their win streak to four games.
“The kids work hard,” O’Rourke said. “We have high expectations of them. Our effort is always there, and we know the mistakes are going to be there. That’s just part of the maturation process.
“These are highly competitive kids,” he added. “I’ve refrained from speaking about, ‘We’re young,’ this or that. I’m not going to make any excuses. I fully understand where we are, but at the same time, I have high expectations for these kids, and they work hard to try and meet them.”
Hanover found success last season with a team that carried a similar burden; its top four scorers were underclassmen. Hanover finished the regular season on a nine-game winning streak that it carried to the NHIAA Division II championship game against Goffstown. The Marauders lost, 37-31.
McCorkle attended last year’s D-II final at Southern New Hampshire University as a spectator and remembered imagining the ways in which she could contribute when she joined the team. A year later, McCorkle — one of five freshmen on this year’s team — leads the Marauders with 13.2 points per game and has scored 145 of Hanover’s 522 points this season.
“I just felt so bad (after last year’s championship loss),” McCorkle said. “Coming into this year, with these girls, it was like, ‘We’re so close.’ But now I’m part of it. It felt like I had to bring it back for them.
“I just knew going in that we’d have to work a little bit harder than everybody else knowing that we’re young,” she added. “But I don’t think you can count us out for one minute.”
McCorkle led the way on Friday with a game-high 23 points, 15 in the first half. Julia Golder netted 13 points and Schwarz added 12.
O’Rourke said he’s pleased with the way his team — with eight underclassmen on its 11-player varsity roster — has played since the start of the new year, but said it is still working on getting the ball inside to avoid being over-reliant on outside shooting from his guards.
“We’re starting to jell as a team,” he said. “We’re halfway through the season. We knew the first half would be challenging given a team made up of so many young kids and inexperienced kids. But besides that, we’re playing really well right now.”
Hanover, despite its record, still shows signs of its inexperience. Con-Val started the second half on a 10-0 run, which cut the Marauders’ lead to 10 points midway through the third quarter, forcing O’Rourke to call a timeout to get his team back in sync. McCorkle answered with back-to-back buckets.
But O’Rourke said he’s taken aback by his team’s resiliency.
“They’re a lot of fun to coach,” he said. “They’re enthusiastic, energetic, they just have a lot of youthful enthusiasm. But what has impressed me most about this team is they’re fearless. They don’t get rattled.”
Schwarz, a sophomore point guard, said Hanover’s confidence comes from within and a leadership structure that keeps everyone accountable. She remembers last year’s run well; Schwarz finished with 23 points in four playoff games. This season’s roster might look different, but the Marauders have done their best to not miss a beat. That, she said, is by design.
“It’s similar (this year), but there are differences,” she said. “Since we are so young, leadership comes from all ages. Everyone has to be a leader on this team. Our two seniors (Olivia Pierce and Mary Feyrer) are phenomenal captains, but the leadership comes from the sophomores, the junior, the freshmen. Everyone is contributing. We’ve really jelled as a team. We’re really together.”
Hanover (7-4 overall) travels to Merrimack Valley on Tuesday.
Josh Weinreb can be reached at jweinreb@vnews.com or 603-727-3306.