By Kim J. Harmon

SOUTHINGTON – As a couple of shots went astray (far, far astray), it looked as if Andrew Fiscella of the Newtown High School boys’ basketball team would not score his 1,000th career point before the Christmas break.

But with a resolve stoked by 30 minutes of frustration, the senior guard took the ball at the top of the key with less than two minutes left to play, quick stepped to his left, drove into the lane and on an acrobatic flip somehow coaxed the ball to tumble over the edge of the rim and into the net.

It was a rare moment in the history of Newtown basketball (rare in that Fiscella is only the fifth player ever to reach the 1,000-point plateau), but not nearly as enjoyable as it could have been had it not come in a 16-point loss to Southington High School.

“(Southington) guarded me from end line to end line,” said Fiscella, whose 17-point effort was a team high. “They played a lot of in-your-face defense and I did not have a good game.”

But he nevertheless reached the first milestone in what could be a memorable campaign. Heading into a game against Staples on Saturday, Fiscella – who scored 105 points as a freshman, 349 as a sophomore and 498 as a junior – is just 281 points short of breaking Steve Kordish’s all-time career record of 1,281.

“I’m not going to think about that now,” said Fiscella. “I’m going to go through the season and if it happens, it happens. My ultimate goal is to win an SWC (South-West Conference) championship.”

That would be considered by some to be uncertain at best, but while the Nighthawks are chasing that lofty goal at least Fiscella will have an opportunity to treat the fans to a one or two historic moments along the way.