Rath hits milestone as Bears win again

LAUREL — Jake Rath recently reached the 1,000-point milestone in a Laurel-Concord-Coleridge basketball game with Lutheran High Northeast on the Bears’ home floor in Laurel.

Rath took a pass, made a quick dribble on the block and scored with just over three minutes left in the third quarter of the game with the Eagles to put his team up 4330 on the way to a 66-43 win on Feb. 7.

It would be safe to say, excluding free throws, which he is shooting at around a 72 percent clip this season, the bulk of Rath’s points have come from inside the paint, although he had hit six 3-pointers thus far this season and a good percentage of his points come after he has just rebounded the ball.

“Jake has made himself a 1,000-point scorer,” LCC coach Todd Erwin said. “He works hard every play, every game, every practice, every day. His dedication has made him better every year.”

“He is relentless inside,” said Lutheran High coach Kenny Blank. “We certainly didn’t have an answer for him — he is one hard-working kid.”

Rath went on to score 24 points against Blank and the Eagles as he registered another double-double with 10 rebounds in the contest.

In fact, he has averaged a double-double the entire season with an average of 21.5 points per game and 12.3 rebounds each and every night he puts on the LCC orange and black.

Although he has scored 1,000 points, he would much rather get a rebound.

“Scoring is great because it helps my team win,” Rath said. “But scoring is usually the result of a group effort by the team to get the ball in the basket — rebounding can become all about just beating the other guy to the ball — that’s what I like.”

And his season field-goal percentage reflects the fact he gets the ball where he is comfortable, capitalizing on 66 percent of the shots he puts up.

And with an average of just under five offensive rebounds per game, some of his points are generated from there.

“That’s a bonus when you score after an offensive rebound,” Rath said. “You have to have that ‘dog’ mentality when the ball goes up — that’s my ball when it comes down and I’ll outwork the next guy to get my ball back.”

Erwin, who has coached the Bears for the past nine years, has seen a string of 1,000-point scorers come through LCC.

“We’ve had seven 1,000-point guys since I’ve been coaching — that’s a lot,” Erwin said. “It speaks to the kind of kids we have playing here and it speaks to how hard they work at getting better — Jake is right up there with the best of the best.”

Blank probably described Rath the best.

“We didn’t have an answer for him — he’s just a beast inside,” the coach said.