ADAMS TWP — The 1,000-point club for the Mars boys basketball team really isn't a list.

In fact, it's just a pair.

Tuesday evening, Tim Frye took the last step to becoming the standard against which all future Planets scorers will be judged.

The senior guard tallied 20 points in a 57-54 loss to Hampton, giving him a school-record 1,102 career points — and counting.

Before Frye reached 1,000 points in early January, the only player to reach that milestone at Mars was Bill Cress, a 1970 graduate who ended his career with 1,098 points.

"Becoming the top scorer was a goal I set for myself when I was just a freshman," said Frye following Tuesday's game. "But it would have meant a lot more if it had come in a win."

The two members of the exclusive class also represent two different eras of basketball at Mars.

"Back when I played, we didn't have a 3-point line," said Cress, whose son, Steve, is a sophomore forward on this year's team. "And with free-throw shooting, we didn't even have the 1-and-1 until my junior year."

Despite those limitations, Bill Cress and his teammates put up some numbers that no current WPIAL team can match.

"My junior year, we once scored 122 points in a game," said Cress. "And we scored over 100 points 10 times that year, giving us a school record of 86 points per game."

Cress recalled a game against Crafton (now Carlynton) in which he scored 31 points and pulled down 30 rebounds.

His 1,000th point came in a game against Avalon (now Northgate).

"I've got enough records," said Cress. "I guess I can spare one after 30-some years."

While Frye has had the 3-point shot at his disposal, which has proven to be a big part of his game, he had to overcome a serious knee injury on his way to the scoring record.

The summer before his junior season, Frye was playing a pickup game when he tore the ACL in his right knee.

"The doctors initially told me that I'd be out five to seven months," he said.

But, with the help of Mars coach Rob Carmody, Frye was determined to come back sooner than later.

"During the summer (of 2004), he made a commitment to get back to his old form," said Carmody. "I'd pick him up at six in the morning during the week and we'd go work out at a place in Cranberry.

"For a high school kid to get up that early every day during the summer, that says a lot about him."

Even with the workouts and support from his coach, Frye was nowhere near his usual self when the 2004-05 season began.

"At the beginning of the year, I was probably at about 40 percent," Frye said. "And by the end of the season, it was around 70 percent.

"It's not that there was a lot of pain, but I couldn't move around that well and I couldn't jump."

Frye still averaged 13.6 points and seven rebounds per game as a junior, along with hitting 47 three-pointers. He currently leads the Planets with 17.3 points per game.

Part of his makeup as a player is the willingness to take shots in the clutch.

"I've always been a very confident kid," said Frye. "And if the game is on the line, I want the ball in my hands."

"You can't lack confidence," said Carmody. "All of the good shooters who I've been around have had it."

Mars (4-6 in Section 1-AAA) is in danger of not making the playoffs.

But no matter how his senior season ends, Frye will leave knowing he and his teammates were the first Mars squad to qualify for postseason play in five years when the Planets made the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs last season.

"The thing I'm going to remember most is the closeness of everybody on the team," Frye said. "And the fact that any one of our starters this year (Robbie Herold, Charlie Jaicks, Steve Cress, Vinny Smith) can go out and drop 20 points in a given game."