The Hanover Indians’ first basketball game in their new high school did not go as planned thanks to the three-point shooting of the Panthers on Monday night.

Whitman-Hanson was lethal from beyond the arc, sinking 14 threes en route to their first win of the season, 86-70 over the Indians.

The Panthers struggled shooting early, and trailed for most of their first quarter as a result. But they took the lead with 2:17 to go in the quarter on a free throw by Blake Hickey, and ran their lead to 25-19 by quarter’s end on threes by Dondre James, Steven Rice and Jason Silva.

The three-point shooting continued for the Panthers as they stretched their lead to 49-32 by halftime and then to 19 points, 69-50, by the end of the third quarter.

“We have a lot of guys who can shoot [threes],” head coach Bob Rodgers said. “It makes us tough to defend. I’d still like to see us score a little more inside, but it makes it difficult for teams to change up their defense on us. Usually the change is to a zone, and the last thing you want to do when a team is draining shots is to go into something like that. It was nice to see us shoot it that well.”

The Indians tried to shut down James in the second quarter, and while they held him to only three points in the frame, senior captain Alex Nuby picked up the slack. Nuby, who struggled shooting against the Hingham Harbormen in the Panthers’ first game, sank two threes in the quarter to help the Panthers run their lead to 13 by halftime, and then erupted in the third quarter when he scored 11 of his game-high 20 points.

“He’s worked so hard,” Rodgers said of Nuby. “I don’t know if I’ve ever had a kid who’s worked as hard as he has, and I told him that was going to pay off in the long run. It’s not going to happen every night, but I would take my chances with Alex shooting it any time.”

James finished with 19 points to go with eight rebounds while Hickey was one rebound short of his second double-double of the season with 12 points and nine rebounds.

Rodgers was also happy that the Panthers were able to keep their turnovers down against the Indians after his team’s struggles holding onto the basketball had doomed them against Hingham.

“Against Hingham we just did such a bad job with that, so I was happy with Brian [Feeney] and it was nice to see Jason Silva get his first minutes of the year,” Rodgers said. “We have to get better defensively though. Right now it’s just helter-skelter, that’s going to be an area of focus going forward.”

The Panthers committed 10 turnovers in the first quarter alone on their way to 25 in the game at Hingham High School Friday night. Though they were able to come back from their slow start, turnovers and foul trouble down the stretch cost them the game in a 63-59 loss to the Harbormen.

The Panthers did a better job keeping possession of the basketball in the second and third quarters, but eight more in the fourth proved costly down the stretch when Hingham was able to nail down the win.

“We were very sloppy with the basketball,” Rodgers said. “You’ve got to protect the ball to be successful and we certainly didn’t do that. In the first half they had taken 15 more shots than us, and it’s hard to win when you give a team that many opportunities.”

The Harbormen jumped out to a 10-3 lead halfway through the first quarter after the Panthers turned the ball over six times in the first two-and-a-half minutes. Whitman Hanson trailed 16-10 at the end of the quarter, but cut the lead to one in the first minute of the second on two baskets from James and then took the lead on a Craig Boure layup. A last second basket by Hingham tied the score at 31 at halftime, but the Harbormen took control late in the third to take a five-point lead into the fourth.

The Panthers got the lead back on a layup by Hickey as the teams traded scores throughout the quarter, but the Panthers suffered a big blow when James fouled out in the final two minutes, and they couldn’t keep pace without their leading scorer.

“That killed us,” Rodgers said. “Dondre is such a key player for us, and when he’s out of the game we’re a different team.”

James finished with 18 points to lead the Panthers while Hickey had a monster game with 14 points and 16 rebounds.

“He’s a special player,” Rodgers said of Hickey. “He’s very athletic and his handle is coming along a little bit. The best is yet to come from him, that’s for sure.”

The Panthers will play their first home game of the season in a boys/girls varsity doubleheader at the high school Friday against the Bridgewater-Raynham Trojans.