ADAMS TWP — Victory earned, lesson learned.

All in all, a pretty good Saturday for the Mars boys basketball team on their home court.

The Planets used runs of 12-0 and 24-0 in the first half to build a 46-15 lead by intermission on their way to a 67-55 WPIAL Class 5A quarterfinal victory over Trinity.

Fifth-seeded Mars (16-3) will travel to top-seed Chartiers Valley (21-3) — a 53-47 winner over Gateway Saturday — for a semifinal game at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

“I don't know if we can play much better than that second quarter today,” Mars point guard Zach Schlegel said. “We just put everything together. That was fun.

“But the way we played in the second half, especially the fourth quarter ... that can't happen.”

Trinity outscored Mars 21-4 in the final quarter.

Mars sank 10 of 16 shots from the floor — including seven treys — in outscotring the Hillers (10-9) 27-4 in the second period. Six of those treys — two each by Schlegel, Mihali Sfanos and Bryce Cunningham — occurred during that 24-0 run.

Tasso Sfanos and Anthony Vargo sank 3-pointers during a 12-0 Planet run in the first quarter, turning a 6-4 deficit into a 16-6 lead.

“This game was a flip-flop to what we did at Highlands in our last game,” Trinity coach Tim Tessmer said. “We couldn't miss that night. Mars couldn't miss today.

“We tried all kinds of different defenses. We couldn't stop them or even slow them down.”

Mars coach Rob Carmody said the second quarter Saturday may have been his team's best eight-minute stretch this season.

“Our first quarter against North Hills was similar to this,” Carmody said. “It's nice when we have two shooters on the floor hitting 3's. We had four of them hitting them today.

“Bryce came off the bench and provided a big spark.”

Cunningham missed his first two shots before striking for 15 points, including eight during that second quarter.

“The guys kept telling me to keep shooting after I missed those early shots,” Cunningham said. “It feels good when you know you have your teammates' support like that.

“This is a great group of guys to play with.”

A Mihali Sfanos trey in the final seconds of the first half gave Mars its 31-point lead and triggered the mercy clock for the second half.

Good thing.

Trinity scored 40 points in the final two quarters, including by that 17-point margin in the fourth period.

“I understand why the rule is there, but once the mercy clock starts running, the game's over. There's just no time to come back,” Tessmer said.

“But our guys were mad they were down 31 at the half. They came back out and showed it.”

Carmody was unhappy with the way the second half played out.

“Very disappointed with the way we finished,” the coach said. “You have to play 32 minutes every game if you want to win a championship.

“What if we don't get that late bucket to trigger the mercy clock? If we start the second half up 29 and play the way we did, this becomes a ballgame.”

Schlegel agreed.

“We should have put our foot on their neck, kept on going,” he said. “We lost our intensity.”

Schlegel scored 19 points and had six assists for the Planets. Cunningham had three assists to go with his 15 points. Mihali Sfanos had 10 points, Tasso Sfanos eight points, five rebounds and four assists. Chris Dvorak led Mars with six rebounds.

Michael Dunn scored 25 points for Trinity — 17 in the second half — to go with six rebounds. Conner Roberts had 14 points, five rebounds and four assists for the Hillers.

“Dunn is very good, but he got most of his points after we had the big lead,” Carmody said. “No. 3 (Kyle Fetchko) hit a bunch of 3's against Highlands and he didn't score today. Overall, I was pleased with our defensive effort.”

TRINITY 55Conner Roberts 6-7 0-0 14, Kyle Fetchko 0-5 0-0 0, Nelson Grayson 2-8 0-0 4, Ben Hardy 2-5 0-0 5, John Trapuzzano 1-2 1-2 3, Gio Cipoletti 0-3 0-0 0, Jake Sanders 2-2 0-0 4, Michael Dunn 9-18 1-1 25. Totals: 22-50 2-3 55.

MARS 67Austin Cote 0-1 1-2 1, Zach Schlegel 6-11 2-3 19, Anthony Vargo 1-3 0-0 3, Chris Dvorak 4-4 0-1 8, Tasso Sfanos 3-8 0-0 8, Nate Roush 1-1 0-0 2, Bryce Cunningham 6-9 0-0 15, Mihali Sfanos 3-11 2-2 10, Pete Craska 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 24-48 6-9 67.Trinity 11 4 19 21 — 55Mars19 27 17 4 — 673-point goals: Roberts 2, Hardy, Dunn 6; Schlegel 5, Vargo, T.Sfanos 2, Cunningham 3, M.Sfanos 2Wednesday: WPIAL 5A Semifinal-Mars at Chartiers Valley, 6 p.m.