Antietam knocks off Halifax, returns to District 3 Class 2A final

Pulling off big road wins in the District 3 Tournament is getting to be routine for Antietam.

For the second time in three seasons the Mounts went on the road and knocked off a higher-seeded team, this team beating second-seeded Halifax 62-53 in a Class 3A semifinal.

The third-seeded Mounts (13-10) will play for a championship for the third straight year when they meet top-seeded Lancaster Mennonite Tuesday at Giant Center at 4:15.

Unlike two years ago, when they knocked off unbeaten Greenwood, the win over Halifax really wasn’t an upset: The Mounts beat the Wildcats (14-6) 49-39 earlier this month at Stony Creek.

“They understand anything can happen when you get to the playoff round,” Mounts coach Mike Green said. “You trust what you’ve been doing all year and put your head down and go to work.”

The Mounts had their work cut out for them after the Wildcats knocked down three 3-pointers in the first quarter and led 17-13 after one quarter. Less than two minutes into the second quarter Javon Hollis, an all-division pick and a three-year starter, picked up his third foul.

“We were man-to-man, and they were just letting it fly, and knocking them down,” Green said of the Wildcats. “Had me a little worried.”

Green switched to a match-up zone to start the second quarter and got a pair of 3’s from senior Noah Archambault. The Mounts held Halifax to nine second-quarter points and went into the half with a 31-26 lead, which they held the rest of the way.

“They’re young, and I think they didn’t understand (the defense we were playing),” Green said of Halifax. “We got pressure on their guards up top and they got a little careless with the ball.”

Green said he showed the match-up zone to Halifax for only a few minutes late in the first meeting.

Sophomore Jowen Reyes-Rodriguez scored 14 points and sophomore Julious Williams 13 for Antietam. Hollis, who went to the bench after picking up his fourth foul early in the third period, finished with nine points. He leads the team in scoring at 13.2 points per game.

Sophomore Waid Gainer led Halifax with 16 points; he scored 21 against Antietam in the first meeting. The Wildcats finished the game with nine 3-pointers.

Mennonite, which has beaten Antietam in back-to-back championship games, advanced with an 86-63 win over fourth-seeded Steel-High.

This will be Antietam’s fourth trip to a district title game in six years; it lost to Steel-High in 2019.

The Mounts own five district titles, all as Mount Penn. The most recent came in 1972.