Area Female Athlete: Lane is Pequot's multi-purpose tool

Olivia Lane

Year: Sophomore

School: Pequot Lakes

Sport: Basketball

Position: Forward

Highlights: Finished with 62 points and 31 rebounds in three games last week

Olivia Lane has become a Swiss Army Knife.

When the Pequot Lakes Patriots girls basketball team needs something done, there's a good chance the first place it looks is in Lane's direction.

The 6-foot-2 sophomore forward is doing it all this season with consistent results.

She tallied 16 points, 10 rebounds and two blocked shots in a 76-60 victory over Sebeka Feb. 10.

Lane registered 23 points and 10 rebounds in a 78-58 Mid-State Conference victory over Park Rapids Feb. 14. She added 23 points and 11 rebounds in a loss to Class 1A's top-ranked Roseau Feb. 17.

"She's gotten better at everything, even defensively," said Pequot Lakes head coach Jon Dale. "She doesn't foul as much. She blocks shots. Every part of her game has improved from last year to this year. Her scoring is higher. Her points per game is better. Her maturity and her court awareness, plus, she's drawing a lot of double and triple teams."

In the team's first 21 games this season, the three-year varsity player is averaging 18.4 points and 11.1 rebounds per game. She's added 36 blocked shots, 31 steals and 16 assists.

"She's our monster on defense," said Dale. "That's obviously one of our key positions. She has to cover sideline to sideline. She has to cover a big space, but obviously she's very quick. Just recently she's our press breaker. She comes up and brings up the ball because team's are taking away the two Skogs (Kristen and Karli). She has pretty good ball-handling skills. She's our all-around player and we struggle when she gets into foul trouble. She's going to be a tough one to replace."

Lane has missed double figure rebounds in just five games this season and only once was held under double digits in scoring-a 67-35 victory against Bemidji Dec. 13. Shooting has been a big focus of Lane's improvement process.

"I worked on my shooting a lot this summer and before school I come in and shoot and I think that's helped a lot," Lane said. "I got to the weight room so I'm much stronger. I've also worked on some ball-handling skills, which has improved and helped me throughout the season."

This season Lane is shooting 50.6 percent from the field. She hasn't attempted a 3-pointer yet, but as she's become more confident with her perimeter shooting, she may. She said outside shooting will be a big area of emphasis this coming offseason.

One area that will be hard to improve on is effort. Dale couldn't praise the sophomore enough.

"She's a gamer. She's so competitive," Dale said. "I brought her down to my office and showed her her sister Vanessa's face in all the pictures and how it's just beat red. Vanessa gave 110 percent and she was a gamer. She does a lot of those things that her sister did. She puts in that much effort. She's never, ever taking a break. She would hyperventilate before she would let up. That's what makes her good and competitive. Not just in basketball, but in everything she does."

Lane said she picked up the work ethic from watching her older sister Vanessa compete.

"When I was younger I watched my sister and I saw first hand how she was a role model and how she used effort and hard work," Olivia said. "That pushed me to want to work hard to achieve things."

But it also takes smarts to play basketball and Lane is learning how to stay on the floor more.

"It definitely takes a lot of discipline," Lane said about staying out of foul trouble. "I've learned that I need to work on not getting dumb fouls and I feel I've gotten better at that. I'm staying aggressive, but not overly aggressive where I foul much."

Pequot was 18-7 heading into Friday's game against Pillager. On Thursday, Lane scored 44 points to set a Pequot girls single-game record and reached 1,000 for her career but she's more focused on helping the team return to the Class 2A state tournament.

According to the Quality Results Formula, Pequot is ranked ninth in 2A and would earn the top seed in the Section 7-2A tournament. But what will it take to advance?

"Our defense, we need to work very fast and get some more stops on defense and on offense we need to jell more together and work at a faster pace," said Lane. "If we get back to fast breaks, that will help a lot."

Other notable performances:

Basketball: Bailey Wynn, Pine River-Backus, scored 24 points against Clearbrook-Gonvick.

Alyssa Semmler, Pine River-Backus, finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots against Clearbrook-Gonvick and 26 points, seven rebounds and four blocks against Nevis.

Bethany Gielow, Pillager, finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds against Menahga.

Grace Imdieke, Lake Region, finished with 29 points and 13 rebounds against Cambridge Christian.

Kennedy Gravelle, Wadena-Deer Creek, scored 21 points against Menahga.

Shania Glenz, Verndale, scored 21 points against Henning.

Taylor Ehnstrom, Aitkin, reached 1,000 career points as she scored 19 against Onamia.

Jami Nelson, Crosby-Ironton, reached 1,000 career points as she scored 25 against Hinckley-Finlayson.