Three for all: Hickerson, Panthers get hot from downtown, defeat Raceland
Feb. 10—RACELAND — Fleming County might receive a bill from Raceland to replace all the lights the Panthers shot out on Saturday.
The visiting squad made 15 from beyond the arc in an 83-54 win over the Rams.
"It was our mental and physical approach," Fleming County coach Buddy Biggs said. "This week has been awesome. We've played three games back to back to back, but we had three really good practices on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. That's where it starts for us. The guys really responded to the physicality of the practices. This is what we have to do against the Ashlands, the Menifiees, the Racelands. We went out and executed the game plan very, very well."
Seth Hickerson accounted for nearly half of the baskets from long range. He went 7 of 9 from 3-point land.
"If things are going to be that hot for the other team, then you've got to do the other things really well to stay in the game," Raceland coach Joe Bryan said. "And we turned the ball over way too much in the first quarter and then got down too many points."
Before Hickerson heated up, it was Isaac Frye who got the hot hand early for Fleming County, hitting his first four attempts for eight points in the first quarter.
From there, Hickerson got to work, putting up nine points in the back half of the frame, including his first 3-pointer.
Trailing 20-4 at one point, Christian Large tried to get his offense jumpstarted with a 3, but the Rams still trailed 30-14 at quarter's end.
The second half started with zero offense from either team.
The first points of the frame came over three minutes in when Fleming County's Adam Hargett drained a 3 at the 4:50 mark.
It was immediately followed by dueling 3s from Large and Hickerson.
Fleming County eventually led 40-17 midway through the second quarter, but a pair of treys from Jacob Waller and a late 3 via Jonah Arnett helped the Rams cut it to a 42-27 deficit at the half.
"We always continue to play hard," Bryan said. "I was proud of them for that. But I just really wish we'd stop getting ourselves into big holes like we did."
Fleming County opened the second half on a 9-2 run courtesy of three more 3s, a pair from Hickerson and one from Hargett.
Both players would repeat that process after a Raceland timeout. Hickerson finished the quarter with four made 3s, and Hargett with a pair.
Frye made another basket in the frame, which made him a perfect 5-5 on the night for 10 points.
The quarter ended with Lucas Jolly doing his impression of the Elongated Man, stretching his way to the rim to lay the ball in at the buzzer.
Both teams put in players from further down the bench in the fourth quarter, but not before Hickerson hit his final 3-pointer.
Despite the starters coming out, the Panthers weren't completely done from behind the arc. Logan Applegate sank a 3 after his only attempt of the night.
Hickerson's sharpshooting easily made him the leading scorer with 33 points.
"I love where our team is right now," Biggs said. "We just got to keep it going. That's the challenge when you get on a roll like this. We've had a long week. We're going to take tomorrow off and come back Monday and regroup and refocus. We got Boyd Tuesday and it's going be a colossal matchup."
Connor Thacker led Raceland with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Large was just behind him with 12, including three 3s.
"We're going to watch this film and learn a lot from it," Bryan said. "We'll get back to practice on Monday and hopefully be able to turn some of the negatives into positives."
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