Staff report

SIDNEY — If the Fairlawn Jets make any kind of extended tournament run in boys basketball, talented junior Nathan Lessing may set a single-season scoring record that will never be broken.

Lessing scored 38 points Saturday night in a big win for the Jets over Miami East, and it brought his season total to 622. That breaks the record of 592 previously held by Tom Pitts and set back in the 1971-72 season — over 40 years ago.

This season, the 6-foot-2 junior is averaging 28.4 points per game. He has scored over 40 once, hitting 41 in a win over Bradford in early December, and has scored 30 or more 10 times. And making his offensive prowess even more impressive is that he doesn’t use the three-pointer all that much in his scoring. He has just 12 threes this season and has attempted only 35.

He has 346 field goal attempts this season and has hit 210 for a remarkable 61 percent from the field. And his work inside gets him to the line an inordinate amount of times — this season he is 190 for 232 from the foul line, 82 percent.

He also leads the Jets in rebounds with 143, and nearly half (64) have come on the offensive end.

His 622 points so far this season give him 1,488 for his career so far, making him a real threat to become the first player in County history to reach 2,000 points in high school.

He is not far from the all-time County career scoring record held by former Fort Loramie great Tom Brandewie of 1,834 points. Brandewie graduated in 1989 and went on to play at Ohio State. Lessing is just 346 points away from that long-standing record.