Kyle Lash has tackled basketball, helped Antietam reach another district title game

Jovan Hollis has been Antietam’s leading scorer this season. The 6-2 senior, a starting linebacker on Exeter’s football team, has also been vital to the Mounts as a rebounder and interior defensive presence.

One of his biggest contributions has come as a recruiter. It took lots of coaxing but he finally got Kyle Lash, his football teammate, to join the basketball team.

“He pestered me for the past two years,” Lash said with a smile. “I had no choice.”

Lash hadn’t played organized basketball since he was a second-grader. He enjoys the game . . . but not necessarily all the rules. As an All-State lineman he enjoys the fact that he’s allowed to slam into people as hard as he likes. They frown on that in basketball.

“I’m a blacktop guy,” said Lash, who gained most of his basketball experience on the playground. “I don’t like to play by the rules. I’m very physical. Five fouls for me is kind of regular.”

The Mounts were hurting after Hector Tiburcio, Antietam’s all-time scoring leader, graduated and the McKoy brothers – Josh and Kingston – transferred to Berks Catholic. They needed help.

Lash didn’t have the requisite shooting and ballhandling skills but he brought a presence to the team, in addition to physical toughness.

“He’s a great energy guy,” said Mounts coach Mike Green, “(plays) good defense, good rebounder. He’s used to competition, so I knew he’d be fine.”

Lash was a two-way lineman at Exeter, which has a joint cooperative sponsorship agreement with Antietam. He has competed at a high level. The Eagles won the District 3 Class 5A championship in 2021 and reached the title game last season.

Having someone come from that kind of winning atmosphere has been a big plus for the Mounts, said senior point guard Carson Lubas.

“He was a great pick-up,” said Lubas. “He’s just a good leader and he brings energy.”

Lash and Hollis have a shot at another gold medal Tuesday when third-seeded Antietam faces defending champ and top seed Lancaster Mennonite in the District 3 Class 2A championship at Giant Center at 4:15.

The Mounts (13-10) are in the championship game for the third straight season, a coup considering what they lost. Josh McKoy was their second-leading scorer last season. Kingston, considered the best all-around freshman in the Berks Conference, would’ve cracked the starting lineup and been one of the top scorers.

Their transfer was a devastating blow to the smallest school in the league. With them, Antietam might have entered the tournament as the favorite. The Mounts didn’t dwell on their loss.

“We just had to overcome it,” said senior forward Noah Archambault. “We couldn’t stay on that, we had to keep going. We played summer league without ’em, and we were alright.”

Lash helped soften the blow. He worked his way into the starting lineup early in the season, which gave Green a chance to ease the load for sophomores Jowen Reyes-Rodriguez and Julious Williams.

“It allowed them to get in the flow of things,” Green said.

Reyes-Rodriguez, who moved in from the Dominican Republic just before the start of the 2021-22 season, has been Antietam’s No. 2 scorer at 10.4 points per game and leads the team with 27 3-pointers. The 6-4 Williams has come on strong late in the season. He scored 13 in the semifinals against Halifax, including a season-high three 3-pointers (on three attempts).

“A 6-4 guy who can hit 3’s and also go down low?” Green said. “I don’t usually get bigs here.”

Lancaster Mennonite has had an up-and-down season, in large part because two-time All-State guard Camden Hurst missed 18 games with a broken hand.

When he’s on the court he’s a holy terror. He scored 25 points against eventual Lancaster-Lebanon League champ Hempfield in the league playoffs and 31 points in an 86-63 win over Steel-High in the semifinals. He has averaged 22.2 points in the six games in which he’s appeared.

Hurst scored 32 points in the 2021 district championship game, which ended Antietam’s season. He had 19 last year in a 52-46 win over the Mounts at Giant Center.

The Blazers also have an scoring threat in senior Savier Sumrall, who averages 12.9 points and leads the team with   45 3-pointers. He dropped 30 against Columbia.

Lash isn’t about to do anything like that. He’s had occasional offensive outbursts – he scored a career-high 16 against Tulpehocken and had 15 against Mount Calvary – but he has no illusions about doing anything like that in the postseason.

“The team doesn’t need me to score,” he said, “it needs me to rebound the ball and play defense. We’ve got scorers.”

A year ago at this time Lash was in the stands at Giant Center for the championship game. He’ll have a better seat for Tuesday’s game.

“It’s not the first time I’ve played in a district (championship) game, it’s just a different sport,” he said. “The environment’s going to be the same, the energy’s going to be the same, just the sport is different, that’s it.”