Rising Planets
PIAA boys basketball playoffs | Mars 60, Highlands 51 Sluggish Mars wakes up in time to beat Highlands
Pregame was unusually quiet for any contest, let alone a PIAA basketball quarterfinal. No music was played at Gateway High School when Mars and Highlands went through warm-ups Friday, and Mars coach Rob Carmody thought maybe that was the reason for his team’s firsthalf playoff doldrums.
Mars scored only 17 points in the first two quarters and faced a seven-point halftime deficit.
“I don’t have any other explanation, so I’m going to blame this one on no warmup music,” said Carmody, with his tongue firmly in his cheek. “I asked for some Def Leppard and AC/DC because our guys are used to that in practice.”
Mars played to a different tune in the second half. It’s not like Mars danced all over Highlands, but the Planets offense rocked in the final two quarters and they defeated Highlands, 60-51, in a Class 5A game in front of a packed house.
Mars scored 43 points in the second half, shot 57 percent from the field, made 15 of 16 free throws and the Planets proved once again they are more than just Robby Carmody. The coach’s son and a standout senior guard who averages 31 points a game, Robby Carmody fouled out with 3:49 left and Mars holding a 48-44 lead. But Highlands could get no closer.
The win puts Mars (24-4) into the PIAA semifinals for the second time in three seasons. The Planets will play Monday against Milton Hershey, which defeated Archbishop Carroll, 73-65, in its quarterfinal.
“I’d love to tell you it was something I said at halftime. I gave my Knute Rockne speech No. 18,” coach Carmody said. “But it was just the kids. They played for each other, they pulled it together and everybody made plays. … We’ve got a lot of winners on this team.”
Robby Carmody, a Notre Dame recruit, finished with 24 points and passed Penn Hills’ Drew Schifino and Shaler’s Dan Fortson to move into eighth place on the WPIAL all-time scoring list with 2,334 points. Andrew Recchia, a junior guard, was vital to the Planets offense in the second half, scoring 14 of his 16 points. He made two 3pointers in the third and was 8 of 8 from the freethrow line in the fourth quarter. Sophomore forward Mike Carmody, Robby’s brother, had 10 points and 9 rebounds while senior guard Cade Hetzler scored all of his six points in the fourth quarter before fouling out.
Sophomore guard Luke Cochran scored 16 to lead Highlands, but was scoreless in the fourth quarter. Highlands shot only 25 percent (4 of 16) in the fourth.
“Besides making it hard for him, our secondary goal was we couldn’t let Recchia get off,” said Highlands coach Tyler Stoczynski, whose team was trying to make the PIAA semifinals for the first time in school history. “The first half, he has two points and we’re up seven. He ends up with 17. That was the biggest difference in the second half.”
Coach Carmody said, “Andrew Recchia was the best player on the floor in the second half, hands down.”
In four of the past five postseason games, excluding a PIAA first-round game against Hampton, Mars has averaged only 20 points in the first half. In the second half, the Planets have averaged 34. Carmody didn’t yell or scream at halftime. In fact, he left the locker room.
“He left it up to us,” Recchia said. “We said we’ve got 16 minutes left to make it work, so let’s get running and play hard. Basically, we just had to play harder and faster. We did it and we won.”
Mike Carmody, a burly 6foot-6 10th-grader with a nice outside touch, hit a 3pointer to put Mars ahead, 38-37, heading into the fourth.