Lin Breaks Historic 50-Year Montgomery Scoring Record in Loss to Gill St. Bernard’s

Nicholas Mistretta

MHS ’79 Cougar Sports Correspondent

Montgomery guard Ethan Lin etched his name into program history this week, surpassing a scoring record that had stood for half a century in the Cougars’ home loss to Gill St. Bernard’s.

The milestone, which had loomed over the season as Lin approached it game by game, finally fell when he scored the basket that pushed him past Maurice “Mo” Bahr, a 1976 Montgomery graduate and the school’s all-time leading scorer for the past 50 years.

The game was stopped briefly after the historic bucket as the public address announcer informed the crowd of the achievement. Lin was greeted by his teammates near midcourt as the home stands rose to their feet in a sustained ovation.

In a fitting moment of continuity for the program, Bahr was in attendance and walked onto the court to personally congratulate Lin. The two shared a handshake and an embrace at center court, joined by Lin’s family for a quick photo as players from both teams applauded from the sidelines.

Bahr’s connection to Montgomery remains strong. His sister, Joanna Bahr Snedeker, is a retired Montgomery High School teacher who spent her career in the district, helping shape generations of students at the current high school while her brother’s long-standing scoring record, set at the old building, continued to loom large over Cougar basketball.

After the brief recognition, the game resumed, and Gill St. Bernard’s ultimately pulled away to secure the victory. While the final score went against Montgomery, the night will be remembered less for the result and more for the passing of the torch from one era of Cougar basketball to the next.

Lin, who has been a cornerstone of the Cougars’ recent success, now stands alone atop the program’s scoring list—a mark that had belonged to Bahr since the mid-1970s, when Montgomery was a very different, much smaller district.

For longtime fans, coaches, and alumni in the gym, the moment carried a sense of history and continuity: a former star and a current one sharing the same floor, connected by decades of Montgomery basketball and a standard of excellence that has endured across generations.

Photo Credit: Nicholas Mistretta/headlinenewsmontgomery.com