Fleetwood junior Jake Karnish ranks among the leading scorers in the Berks Conference, averaging more than 18 points a game.
Karnish, however, did not play his best game of the season Wednesday night against Antietam, so the Tigers needed somebody else to fill the void.
Nate Herb and Dylan Fickes did exactly that.
Herb scored a career-high 19 points and Fickes hit a pair of clutch baskets in the fourth quarter, helping Fleetwood beat the visiting Mounts 51-38 in a battle of division leaders.
“When one person isn’t playing well, we all have to come together and contribute,” Herb said. “We just picked him (Karnish) up.”
Herb had 15 of his points in the first half and sank 3-of-4 free throws in the fourth quarter.
Fickes was scoreless until he put back a miss after Antietam (6-1 Berks IV, 14-2) had closed within 38-33. Less than a minute later, he buried a 3-pointer off an assist from Karnish to make it 43-34 with 3:05 left.
Fickes is Fleetwood’s best 3-point shooter, but he missed his first four attempts Wednesday.
“The coaches and everybody else told me to keep shooting,” he said. “One finally fell. I was open in the corner, so why not?”
Fickes and the Tigers (6-1 Berks III, 11-3) maintained their poise during a tense second half and snapped the Mounts’ 11-game winning streak.
After several fouls were called on both teams in a short span in the third quarter, Antietam coach Mike Green turned to Fleetwood coach Terry Sitler and said, “Why aren’t they letting us play?” Sitler replied, “I don’t know.”
That’s when the first technical foul was called on Green. Another one quickly followed and he was ejected with the Mounts trailing 35-26 and 1:02 to go in the third.
Karnish made 3-of-4 technical free throws to extend Fleetwood’s lead to 12.
“I apologized to my team because I let them down,” Green said. “I know better. I can’t control how games are being officiated. I can only control to some degree how my kids play and how they behave.
“I did not control my controllables. I’m old enough and wise enough to know not to do that.”
Hector Tiburcio, one of the leading scorers in the league at 17.0 points per game, was called for a technical foul with two minutes left in the fourth quarter and Antietam down by nine.
Fleetwood limited Tiburcio to nine points on 4-for-12 shooting and held the Mounts to a season low in points and 14-for-44 shooting. The Tigers usually play man-to-man defense, but they used an effective 2-3 zone instead.
“We played zone because they like to drive and penetrate and they don’t shoot the 3 well,” Sitler said. “Physically they’re probably a better team than us. We wanted to make them win it from the outside.”
Antietam made just four field goals in the first 15 minutes of the second half before scoring two in the final minute.
“It was a combination of factors,” Green said. “We weren’t making our bunnies (layups) when we had opportunities and that was frustrating us. Give credit to them. They ran a nice zone defense and hustled the entire night.
“For some reason our guys were stagnant. I don’t know why. For some reason tonight was not our night.”
Antietam still has a one-game lead on Tulpehocken in Berks IV and has a win over the Trojans. The Mounts are still No. 1 in the District 3 Class 2A power ratings by a comfortable margin.
Fleetwood has a one-game lead in the loss column on Wyomissing in Berks III and a victory over the Spartans. The Tigers are in position to make the 16-team District 3 Class 5A field at No. 10 in the power ratings.
They play their third game in three nights against Twin Valley Thursday at home.
“This is a big confidence booster,” Karnish said. “It motivates us. We know we have a long week, but getting through this one will make us go even harder tomorrow.”
Karnish shot just 2-for-7 from the field and 7-for-11 from the line, but he had a game-high 13 rebounds and four assists. Fleetwood also got 10 points and eight rebounds from Will Ryan, showed balance and overcame 19 turnovers..
“Jake had a bad game, but we have other people,” Sitler said. “That’s the beauty of our team. We scored 51 points and he didn’t play well. He’s unselfish. He doesn’t care because we won.”
