Athens Rides Hot Start To 72-19 Win Over Canton
By: Tim Birney | NTL Sports | January 22, 2026
CANTON - Athens got off to a blazing hot start, and rolled to a 72-19 win over Canton here Wednesday night in NTL boys basketball action.
Senior Eli Hobday canned a trio of 3-pointers, and scored 11 points in the first quarter, while junior Lucas Schultz scored eight points, and junior Gage Marmor added four points to fuel a game-opening, 31-5, blitz for the Wildcats.
Marmor scored five points, including a trey, in the second quarter, while Schultz added four points, and Hobday drained another 3-pointer in the Wildcats 19-3 run to up the lead to 50-8 at the halftime break.
Junior Aiden Vanderpool scored seven points in the second half, and junior Alex McQuay and Aiden Briggs each scored four points as Athens outscored Canton, 22-11, in the second half.
Read more about the Wildcat's big night on Valley Sports Report.
Tim Birney is the founder / owner of River Road Media Group. He was born and raised in the Valley, graduating from Waverly High School in 1984.
Birney earned an Associate's Degree in Journalism from SUNY Morrisville in 1986 and a Bachelor's Degree in Journalism / Public Relations from Utica College of Syracuse University in 1988. He began his newspaper career at The Daily Review in Towanda in 1989, before moving on to The Evening Times in 1995. He spent more than 10 years at the Times, the last four as Managing Editor.
River Road Media Group includes five sites in "The Sports Reports" family that cover 24 school districts in five counties: Valley Sports Report (launched Aug. 10, 2009), Tioga County (NY) Sports Report (Aug. 13, 2018), and Northern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 31, 2020); Northern Tier West Sports Report (March 15, 2021) Southern Tier Sports Report (Aug. 16, 2021).
