City of Basketball Love

Konner Metz (@konner_metz)
—

Bahsil Laster has been heeding the advice of those around him to adopt an attacking mindset ever since transferring to Academy of the New Church this past summer from Archbishop Wood.

Often seen galloping down the court in the fast break and attacking off the dribble, the 6-foot-6, lengthy junior is channeling that approach in his first months as a Lion.

“A lot of my coaches and my teammates and my family, everybody’s telling me to be more aggressive,” Laster said. “Just attacking more, looking to create shots for myself as well as my teammates. Just trying to take control a little more of the game.”

This past summer, Laster took control in a different way off the court, transferring schools and accruing an extra year to develop.

Laster is repeating his junior year after his move to ANC, giving him two more years at the high school level. He averaged 8.1 pts, 3.6 reb and 4.5 ast as a junior at Archbishop Wood, and has already had Division I looks from schools such as Marquette and Pitt, as well as offers from Drexel and St. Peter’s.

Since being at ANC, Laster has focused on his on-ball aggression and driving into the paint for close-range looks. On Wednesday at the Wilmington Play-By-Play Classic, nearly all of Laster’s 20 points came inside the paint off of drives, a handful of those buckets coming during fastbreak opportunities. 

“I don’t really benefit from watching everybody else, I got to get better at moving off the ball,” Laster said after ANC’s 78-49 victory over Howard (Del.). “But if I have the ball in my hands, I got to use my strengths to help out the team.

“I just got to attack the basket more. If I attack, it draws the defense, it gives me so many more options than if I were to just not do any attacking. I just got to be more aggressive.”

Coach Kevin Givens shares the same philosophy regarding Laster’s craft and pushing the defense more with the ball in his hands, saying Wednesday’s outing was one of Laster’s best games.

He hasn’t coached Laster for long, but when Givens first saw him workout last spring – before his transfer to ANC – he knew there was something special about the former Wood guard, something that would translate to an even higher level. 

“I see a high-profile kid in there somewhere,” Givens said. “He’s got all the talent in the world, he’s 6-6, he’s long, he’s athletic. I think he’s a high-level basketball player, I think he’s got all that in him.

“He can definitely play at Drexel or St. Peter’s, without a doubt. No doubt about it.”

The talented junior is handling a starring role for Academy New Church all while adjusting to a new team. The Lions are led by senior guard Deywilk Tavarez – who poured in 27 points in Wednesday’s win. Senior Jarell Keel and 6-3 freshman Dior Carter are other key pieces to ANC’s core group of guys.

Laster says his teammates have been encouraging him to play with an attack-first mentality.

“Just telling me that in order to help them, I just got to be myself, I gotta attack,” he said. “In order to get myself shots, in order to get everybody else shots.”

The aggressiveness has been a primary focus of improvement that culminated in his 20-point outing, but Laster is also putting attention to his jump shot. While he doesn’t outright prefer the midrange, he recognized his shooting technique beyond the arc needs work. 

He didn’t make any 3-pointers against Howard but did show off a silky smooth, off-the-dribble jumper in the second quarter, an example of where he’s found success shooting the ball.

“My pull-up is getting better, off the dribble, like mid-range for sure,” he said. “But 3’s especially, catch-and-shoot, coming off of screens, I just got to get better in my shooting, and increasing my range.”

By reclassifying down a year, Laster has plenty of time ahead of him to hone his deep-shooting acumen. He called the move and extra high school year a “second opportunity,” and intends to take advantage of the extra time and experience afforded to him.

The ANC team isn’t running exclusively through Laster, but Givens feels his role and impact will only continue to increase as he becomes familiar with the program and his teammates, as they aim to unseat Westtown after finishing as runners-up in the Friends’ League each of the last three seasons (there was no FSL season in 2020-21).

Just how much does Givens think his athletic guard can handle going forward?

“He can do more. He can be more aggressive, he can rebound, he can take guys off the dribble,” Givens said. “He’s really a 6-6 point guard, he can really handle the ball. He’s got ball-handling skills and he sees the floor very well. So he’s got very good court awareness.”

As the season moves along, Givens wants to see Laster increase his presence as a true point guard for the Lions due to that court awareness and his passing skills. For the Lions and Laster, there’s no better time than the present.

“We want him to take over now,” Givens said.

~~~

By Quarter

ANC:       15  |  27  |  11  |  25  ||  78
Howard:  16  |   7   |   9   |  17  ||  49
Scoring

ANC: Tavarez 27, Laster 20, Carter 11, Waldon 9, Keel 6, Obayi 3, Barnave 2

Howard: A. Richards-Powell 9, Herring 8, Ross 6 Matthews 6, Marcus Johnson 4, Jamal Johnson 4, X. Richards-Powell 4, Scruggs 4, DeShields 2, Lane 2