NANKIN – The first two years leading the Mapleton boys basketball program could not have been a ton of fun for Nick Hickey.
The Mounties were 0-28 in Firelands Conference play after he began what he hoped would be a rebuild five seasons ago.
But on a snowy Friday night with visiting Western Reserve in town, the juice proved to be worth the squeeze.
Hickey and the Mounties led for the last 28 minutes of a 58-48 outcome, giving them their 14th win of the season – the most for the Mapleton boys program since 1982.
“They’ve got a great group, they should enjoy it, and Coach Hickey deserves a ton of credit,” 22nd-year Roughriders coach Chris Sheldon said. “To turn around a bottom-feeding program and have them at the top (half) of our league now two years in a row, that’s a credit to him and his kids.”
The victory secured the third-place spot in the Firelands Conference for Mapleton (14-6, 9-4 FC), its highest finish in the league since 2014-15. That season was also the last time the Mounties swept Western Reserve (10-8, 7-6).
Mapleton knocked off the ’Riders by a 56-35 count on Jan. 5, and it was their defense carrying the day yet again Friday.
The Mounties forced Western Reserve into 21 turnovers and turned that defense into offense for much of the game while spreading out various scoring runs.
One key tone-setter was scrappy, 5-foot-9 junior Joe Foster, who collected all six of his points off putbacks in the first quarter during a 13-2 MHS run.
“His energy is constantly through the roof and he’s been like that since he was younger, too,” Hickey said. “You just hope and pray that a player like Joe Foster rubs off on everybody else because it’s good for the team.”
Mapleton also had an 11-4 spurt in the second quarter and a 12-2 run in the third, then watched as standouts Kyle Sloter (senior) and Scotty Hickey (junior) helped fend off the ’Riders in the fourth.
Sloter scored seven of his game-high 17 points in the final quarter while clearing 950 points for his career. Hickey (12 points) seemed to have a hand in everything on both sides of the floor while moving past 925 career points.
“When (Sloter and Hickey) are playing good and controlling the tempo and the pace for us, we’re really, really good,” coach Hickey said. “Those two kind of feed off each other a little bit.”
Western got within 52-44 on a 3-pointer from the left wing with 2:07 to play from leading scorer and sophomore Chase Hipp (15 points), but the visitors committed seven turnovers in the fourth period and couldn’t get any closer.
The ’Riders were a serviceable 41 percent shooting from the field (17 of 41) and outrebounded Mapleton 27-24 for the game. But with four sophomores in the starting lineup – the youngest group Sheldon has had in his two-plus decades leading the program – Western seemed too rushed on offense to ever get rolling.
“I thought our guys really adjusted (after the first quarter) on the glass,” said Sheldon, whose only other double-digit scorer was sophomore Brexton Fraelich (11 points). “Our problem was in the second half we just couldn’t get in a rhythm offensively.”
The Mounties, meanwhile, got a combined 19 points from seniors Lane Dreibelbis (12) and Cole Vermilya (7), helping them overcome slow starts in both the second and third quarters.
“We knew it was going to be a defensive game,” Sloter said. “We can score offensively any time we want, but defensively, that’s where we have to try our hardest.”
Mapleton finished 22 of 49 from the field (45 percent), hitting 7-of-17 tries from downtown. The Mounties are 14-1 when scoring more than 50 points this season.
Now they look to add to what has become a historic campaign for the program.
Mapleton celebrates Senior Night in a nonconference clash Saturday night against Mansfield Temple Christian before closing the regular season next Friday at Monroeville (6-14, 4-9).
That will be followed by a sectional title game at home March 1.
“We preach changing culture here,” Sloter said. “That’s one of the biggest things that we’ve had, and this senior group right here, we’ve put it into our own hands.
“We’ve put in the work.”
Mapleton has increased its total wins in each of Hickey’s five years as head coach. Stability has proven to be a welcome addition.
“We had higher hopes for the league; we still feel like we let two slip away against St. Paul (losses by a combined eight points) and then one against Crestview,” Hickey said. “But still, we’re proud.
“The boys are learning how to win and make winning plays, so you’ve got to be really happy with that.”
Note: Prior to the game, Mapleton dedicated a large American flag hanging in the gymnasium to senior Bre McKean. She passed away prior to a football game in late September due to myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscles.
