Dylan Stish joined an elite club on Tuesday night.
Hazleton Area’s junior basketball standout became the just the 11th Cougars’ player to eclipse the 1,000-point mark in a career and only one of a select few to reach the mark as an 11th-grader.
Stish’s 1,000th point came on on a three-point shot from the left corner with 1:18 remaining in the third quarter of a 79-29 rout of Nanticoke at Hughie McGeehan Gymnasium. The three-year starter finished with a season-high 32 points, including 11 in both the first and second quarters that left him eight shy of the coveted mark. He sandwiched two deuces around a triple to start his third-quarter scoring, before knocking down his fourth triple of the game to set off a celebration among his teammates and coaches and those in attendance.
Stish joins his father, Frank, in the 1,000-point club at Hazleton Area, though Frank started his career at Bishop Hafey. Sal Biasi is the Cougars’ all-time leading scorer with 1,787 points followed by Chris Long (1,618), Brian Kunec (1,493), Russ Canzler (1,261), Terry Kringe (1,247), Hassan Abdullah (1,238), Mike DeMarco (1,226), Da’mir Faison (1,214), Frank Stish (1,100), Jeff Planutis (1,008) and now Dylan Stish (1,000).
As for Tuesday’s game, the Cougars (6-8, 3-2 Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1) led 25-7 after one quarter and 54-16 at halftime and easily snapped their two-game losing streak.
Sophomore Eddie Macko added 13 points; Oscaudy Vasquez had nine and Jahziel Ramirez was right behind with eight for the Cougars.
Dylan Ball and Ethan Yendrzeiwski both canned nine points for the Trojans.
Hazleton Area is back on the road at Wilkes-Barre Area on Thursday and then face York William Penn in the Geigle Classic at Reading on Saturday afternoon.
Wyoming Seminary 57, MMI Prep 31
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