Playing pickup basketball with his older brother and his brother’s friends, young Justin Hojlo was at a constant disadvantage. Now, in his junior year at Pelham High School, the hoopster that teammates once nicknamed “Peanut” because of his relatively small stature has arrived at 1,000 points faster than any other player in school history.

That list includes current Southern New Hampshire cager James Roman, who captained Pelham with Justin’s brother Frank in 2006 when Justin was a freshman and the team won the Class I crown. In fact, Hojlo hit the mark in five fewer games.

“(Roman) is a completely different player because he dominated with his size, where I dominate with my quickness,” said the flashy guard.

Indeed, it makes the accomplishment that much more impressive, said Pythons coach Todd Kress.

“The thing about Justin I guess I admire the most is a lot of times, when you see 1,000- point scorers, usually they are bigger, physical players, and they usually get a lot of putbacks and garbage points,” he said. ““It’s kind of remarkable because (Hojlo) has gotten the majority of his points from the perimeter. You’ve got to be one heck of a shooter and have a very high (shot) percentage to be able to do that. It really speaks volumes about how skilled he is.”

And, said the coach, Hojlo has done this as the focal point of opposing defenses since his first game as a sophomore last season.

“Not to take anything away from James, but he was very fortunate to play on a team with numerous offensive options,” said Kress. “Justin has had to constantly face the other team’s best shutdown defender and their gimmick defenses, so to be able to reach 1,000 points in such a short amount of time is pretty amazing.”

‘Unselfish’ star

Still, Kress said if he had to describe his star with one word, it would be “unselfish.” Hojlo sees it as playing within the system. “Because of the way our offense is, it’s run and gun, and I just love playing that type of game. It gives me a lot of opportunities to score,” he said.

Likewise, it gives him the opportunity to draw defenders away from backcourt mate Ricky Costa and the rest of the Pythons, who have learned to feast on the defensive vulnerabilities Hojlo creates.

“He just makes everyone better,” said Costa. “I mean, he did score 1,000 points, but you look at most of the games, and he usually has around 10 assists, so it’s not like he’s just out there for himself.”

Left alone, he’ll take the three-pointer from the top of the key nearly every opportunity. Pressure him, and he’ll drive to the basket, draw a foul or find an open teammate at the last moment. Any way Kress draws it up, it means points.

But Hojlo hasn’t always been so polished. As a freshman, he received little playing time at the varsity level until the end of the season, when he became the team’s secret weapon in the playoffs. Back then, said Kress, Hojlo had already developed a precision shot from the perimeter. The problem was he drew defenders out 20 feet from the basket, then stepped back two feet and took the shot. When he was 22 feet out and a defender followed, he shot it from 24 feet, and so on.

“Now, he dares them to come out and get him, and when they do, he goes right by them,” said Kress. “He was very one-dimensional as a freshman. He’s gone from being a shooter to being a scorer.”

Hojlo said that development has been in the works for awhile. Along with his brother and Roman, Hojlo grew up playing against Aaron Lastoff, Pelham’s center during its 2006 title run, as well as Kyle Roman, who graduated in 2007.

“(Frank) helped me work on my offense a lot because he was such great defensive player,” said the younger Hojlo. “Plus, playing in the neighborhood a lot growing up – going against guys that were bigger and better – helped me learn and work on different ways to score.”

Through games on Tuesday, Feb. 12, Hojlo has scored 1,037 career points, 583 short of Roman’s school record of 1,621 points. But he still has more than a year of games to play.