LEBANON — Maddie McCorkle’s floaters couldn’t be stopped.
Midway through the fourth quarter, the Hanover High girls basketball guard capitalized on drives into the paint with her signature running floater on back-to-back possessions to help the Marauders stretch their lead to seven points.
Hanover held off a Raiders’ rally by calmly making its free throws late in the fourth quarter to sweep the regular season series of the Wechsler Cup on Monday night at Lang Metcalf Gym, 51-41.
McCorkle, a Duke women’s lacrosse commit, finished the game with a season-high 20 points.
“She’s really quick,” Raiders coach Tim Kehoe said.
Added Hanover coach Dan O’Rourke: “She rose to the occasion when we needed her most. We weren’t playing our best basketball, but she’s a gamer, and she’s going to have the ball in her hands when we need her the most.”
In the first meeting of the season between the two teams back on Jan. 6, Hanover’s defense caused problems for Lebanon which resulted in a 42-37 victory for the Marauders. The Raiders couldn’t find their groove offensively and struggled to break their archrival’s press.
But on Monday night, Lebanon didn’t seem fazed by the press that caused it trouble nearly a month ago. Instead, it was the Raider’s half-court game that held them back.
They finished the game shooting 9-of-20 from the free-throw line and missed a handful of fast break layups.
With 4:55 to play in the game, Becky Wright hit a trey to bring the Raiders within three points. But Wright then missed two shots at the charity stripe, Lebanon turned the ball over and missed a shot, all over the span of more than three minutes while Hanover didn’t score a basket either.
But a Caroline Adams layup made it 43-38 for Hanover with 1:44 to play to break the scoreless spell.
Wright, who entered Monday averaging 23.1 points per game, still scored 21 points.
But the Southern New Hampshire University basketball commit picked up her third foul in the second quarter with 5 minutes, 54 seconds until halftime and sat out the rest of the quarter.
She ultimately fouled out with 42 seconds left, only the second time in her career. The first was on Jan. 6 at Hanover.
“We didn’t play very well in the half court,” Kehoe said. “We missed a ton of layups, three front ends of one-and-ones. We didn’t play very well tonight offensively. Everything else wasn’t bad, we have to play better offensively to be a good team.”
For Hanover, Monday night wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
The Marauders are holding their opponents to an average of 40.3 points per game, which they did against Lebanon (12-4, 10-3 NHIAA).
The only hiccup came in the second quarter, when Hanover’s depth was tested due to foul trouble in its backcourt.
Facing foul trouble in the second quarter, the Marauders received help from their bench.
Adams, Johari Ajwang, Melissa Whitmore all had baskets and Stella Galanes hit a 3-pointer as time expired before the break.
The Marauders entered the half up 22-20.
Hanover (13-2, 12-0 NHIAA) has now won nine consecutive games since it visited New York for a holiday tournament over school break in December.
It hasn’t lost an NHIAA game since the beginning of last season, the streak now at 32 games including postseason play.
“I think our defense made them work for everything tonight,” O’Rourke said. “We talked about getting the 50-50 balls. Our defense is coming on each game we play.
“Yes, this is a rivalry game. Yes, it’s a great atmosphere. But, win or lose, our season continues tomorrow. It doesn’t have the same finale that a playoff games has.
“Obviously we want to win, but if we don’t we take the loss and move on from our mistakes.”
NOTES: Sally Rainey added eight points for Lebanon. … Charlotte Johnson finished with 11 points for the Marauders. … Hanover travels to Stevens on Wednesday and then hosts undefeated Hollis-Brookline on Friday night. … Lebanon visits Kearsarge on Wednesday. … Wright is now only 18 points away from tying the school record for all-time points. The previous record of 1,635 points was set by Jayne Daigle who graduated in 1982 and went on to play women’s basketball at Dartmouth. … Monday’s game didn’t start until 6:56 p.m. due to the boys game going into overtime.
Pete Nakos can be reached at pnakos@vnews.com.