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Lane nets 1,000th in Athens win at Troy
By: Brian Fees | Towanda Daily Review | February 6, 2018 | Photo courtesy Brian Fees
TROY — Point number 1,000 came in the most fitting way for Athens senior Ethan Lane.
The milestone came at the free throw line on a night when Lane was 9-for-10 at the line in the Wildcats' 79-68 win at Troy.
"It's pretty ironic because it's basically all I practice every single night," Lane said of free throws.
For Lane, the milestone is a long time in the making.
"It feels great, a lot of hard work and long days have come into this," Lane said.
Early in his career, Lane learned from the upperclassmen, and the past two years he has taken on a starring role.
"It's been very special," he said. "My first two years, players did a very good job incorporating me into the offense and teaching me how to lead, so the last two years I have been able to take over the team, with the help of my teammates."
For Lane, it's been a storybook senior year, with him breaking the school goals record in soccer and now reaching 1,000 points in basketball.
"I never thought of that (reaching these milestones)," Lane said. "I am glad to see the hard work has paid off."
For the Athens Wildcats, the senior class keeps impressing coach Bob Woodward.
"We have some kids on our team, our seniors, are overachievers," Woodward said. "What I mean by that is, I think they have a long way to go, but when I come into the gym and they can't wait to get in there, can't wait to get extra shots in and work on ball-handling. They stay late. What an example for all the young guys."
For Ethan, what made the milestone more special was sharing it with his younger brother, and teammate, Aaron.
"It was very special," Ethan Lane said. "He's a great shooter that can just spot up and hit and I'm glad I have him on the team."
For Lane, hitting the milestone was a bit of a surprise on Monday.
"I really didn't know where I was, so it was kind of a surprise," he said.
It was a homecoming for Woodward as he returned to the school for which he was the long-time coach into last season. But, Woodward was focused on the effort, not the homecoming.
"Our only focus is not who we are playing," he said, "it's how we are playing. Our kids are grinding to get better. Our kids played hard tonight, and so did they."
Both Lane and Gavin Stein led Athens with 25 points each and Aric Westbrook had nine points.
Aaron Lane had seven points in the game and Mateo Baglini and Keegan Rude had six each, while Damian Hudson had one point.
Athens shot 27-for-32 from the free throw line, including 16-for-18 in the fourth quarter of the win.
"I think the important part was, we were making foul shots," Woodward said. "We did a good job of that, especially down the stretch."
Ja Wallace led Troy with 18 points and Clark Jackson finished with 17 points.
Nate Martin had 12 in the game and Robert Rogers finished with nine points.
Seldon Rogers had five for Troy and Nat Graybill finished with four points, while Corey Davis had two points and Jake Deitrick finished with one point.
Jackson had five boards and three assists and Martin had seven rebounds and four steals.
Wallace had seven baords, five assists and six steals and Seldon Rogers had eight steals.
About the Author
Brian Fees is the sports editor of the Daily & Sunday Review in Towanda, PA.
