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What's the most important thing he tries to teach his players?

"Court awareness," said Hickman, whose coaching career has gone from Laurel High, to Bowie State University, to Potomac High, where he won state championships in 1981 and 1989, back to Bowie State, then to Frederick Douglass High before spending the past five seasons at Kempsville High in Virginia Beach, Va.

"It seems like the kids haven't played a lot of basketball, so we start with court awareness."

Hickman said the graduation loss of Percy Woods, who was the 2009 Gazette-Star Player of the Year, has added another challenge to taking over at Crossland. Woods averaged 28.4 points per game last season and had six games of 30 points or more.

"I understand they had the player of the year last year, and I don't know how much the other guys played," Hickman said. "I don't know how much they got a chance to do some things. When you lose a player of the year, someone who scored up to 30 points a game for you, it's tough."

Back to business

Gwynn Park notched a 74-59 non-league victory against Old Mill on Tuesday, but the Yellow Jackets don't have long to enjoy it. They must now turn their attention to Friday, when they will face a talented Potomac team in the County 3A/2A/1A League opener for both teams.

The Yellow Jackets swept the Wolverines in two tightly contested games last season, and coach Mike Glick doesn't see a reason why this game won't be another nail bitter.

"They are very good team and this will be a challenge for us," he said. "I am anxious to see how my team responds during its first road game."

Shorthanded Knights

Forestville coach Irvin Hay said he expects his five players that missed Tuesday's 70-41 loss to Northwestern to be back with the team Friday against Friendly.

Hay said starters Antonio Belt, Brandon Miller and Carnel McClary, along with Rowan Pinkett and 6-foot-7, 300-pound Chris Pressley missed the basketball game to practice with the Prince George's team in preparation for Saturday's Chick-Fil-A Challenge all-star football game.

Hay said the players' absences had a major effect on preparation. Forestville would have had its full roster available had the game been played Saturday as originally scheduled. But the contest was postponed to Tuesday due to Saturday's snow.

"It interferes a lot on what we try to do," Hay said. "Our school is so small, we have to compete for and share [athletes]. If this had been Saturday and I had all of my players, it would have been a totally different ballgame."

Road warriors

Northwestern will have to get its mind off of its Adelphi Road home for the time being. The team will play three consecutive road games starting with Friday's contest against Oxon Hill.

The Wildcats' schedule has its quirks, as the team will spend virtually all of January playing at home. But coach Terrance Burke said the schedule may actually help his team.

"I think with our out-of-county schedule, we will play three games in one week on four different occasions this season. Basketball is a fast-paced game, and once the season starts, you have to go. We were just practicing to work on things with our team but now we're practicing for teams."

Live by the 3, die by the 3

Laurel succumbed Tuesday night to the notion that teams often live and die by shooting 3-pointers, although the Spartans were not doing all of the shooting at the time.

Laurel (1-1) rallied from a 15-point second-quarter deficit against Bowie to get within eight points at halftime on 3-pointers from Jerrium Beale and Unegbu Agugua. The Spartans then narrowed the gap even further in the third quarter on 3-pointers from Omar Hendricks and Beale.

But the Spartans failed to connect on another 3-point shot during the remainder of the contest, and their chances for success were hindered when Bowie guard Jared Carithers hit three 3-pointers in the last 4 minutes of the third quarter. Carithers added several other buckets to finish with a game-high 24 points as the Bulldogs pulled away from the Spartans for a 79-51 victory.

"We got close, but we could never get over the hump," said Laurel coach Antoine Gaither. "Omar and Jerrium hit some big shots to get us back in it, then [Carithers] hit those 3-pointers in the third quarter and they jumped back to a 16-point lead [at 58-42]. We probably need to do a better job of protecting the basketball and getting back on defense."

Staff Writers Ken Sain, Terron Hampton, Ted Black and Joshua Hudson contributed to this report.