It's not that Annie Hickman didn't relish the role of go-to player. It's just that, after a while, it got pretty taxing mentally and physically.

"It was very tough for Cassie (Morrison) and I," Hickman said. "We were doing everything. Toward the end of the season, the other players started picking it up, but it was still tough being keyed on all the time."

All the attention heaped on the 5-foot-10 junior forward for the A-C Valley girls basketball team didn't slow her down much, however.

Hickman finished the season averaging 17.2 points and 10.3 rebounds per game for the Falcons, who wrapped up a disappointing season at 8-14 overall and 3-10 in the Keystone Shortway Athletic Conference.

"My goal was to make the playoffs," Hickman said. "That didn't happen."

The Falcons had a very tumultuous season that included a mid-season coaching change when Pat Kerlin resigned and junior varsity coach Jamie Nevel took over.

Nevel is still not sure whether she will be hired for next season. That won't be decided for another month, she said.

But Hickman won't be around next season to play for anyone at A-C Valley. Her family recently moved to Cranberry and Hickman will be playing for the Berries, the District 9 Class AA champions, next season.

She now attends Cranberry High School and is on the school's softball team.

Hickman is already thinking about next basketball season.

"I think we'll be a pretty good team," Hickman said. "I think it will be a better year for me, too. I won't be the main focus. Teams will have to worry about four other players instead of just one other player."

Amid off-the-court distractions and inconsistent play on the court, Hickman and Morrison were the two constants. The two combined for more than 80 percent of the team's points this season.

That lopsided statistic was a major point of contention for Nevel when she took over. She tried to drill into the heads of the supporting cast to take more of a scoring initiative.

"I told them they had to shoot more," Nevel said. "They could do it, they just figured they'd pass the ball to Annie or Cassie and they'd take care of it. Once they started to shoot more, our scoring went up."

But it was hard not to give Hickman the basketball and let her do her thing, since she showed the capability of doing her thing so well.

Hickman was anything but a mystery heading into this season.

"She did excellent last year as a sophomore," Nevel said.

Nevel said Hickman should have played on the varsity team as a freshman, but didn't. Instead, she dominated on the freshman basketball team.

"She would have had 1,000 total points by now had she played as a freshman," Nevel said.

Hickman is sitting at 666 points in her two-year career. She will most likely eclipse 1,000 points wearing a Cranberry uniform next season.

Nevel said Hickman can get much better, just like she did before this season.

During the summer, Hickman worked diligently on her game. And it paid dividends.

"I worked on it all the time," Hickman said. "I went to camps and played all summer."

Nevel, though, said believes Hickman can be even more of a scoring threat if she works on developing her dribbling skills to the left.

All season, teams forced her that way because of her weak left hand. That took lanes to the basket away from Hickman.

"She would have scored so many more points if she had a left hand," Nevel said. "That's one of the things she needs to work on."

Hickman chuckles when asked about that.

"Yeah," she said. "I've heard that. It's definitely something I'm going to work on."

The one thing that draws Hickman the most attention is her wide range of skills.

She is potent in the paint and beyond the arc. Hickman hit 55 3-pointers this season.

"She's very diverse," Nevel said. "You can put her at point guard or put her on a 6-footer and she'll do what you tell her to do. Defense, offense, it doesn't matter. She's as well rounded as they come."

But now she's in the Cranberry fold.

The Berries lose only two seniors from a team that went 16-10 and lost to North East in the first round of the state playoffs.

"I talked to the coach (Chris Stefanini) a couple of times and she told me I'd be playing forward next year," Hickman said. "I'm looking forward to it. I think we'll have a great season."