JEFFERSON TWP— Playoffs weren't on the line. Pride was.

Mars senior forward Steve Cress scored 10 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter Saturday afternoon as the Planets held off Knoch, 63-58, in boys basketball action.

The Knights rallied from 10 points behind in the third quarter to tie the game with 4:50 remaining in the contest, but couldn't grab the lead.

"We can't finish it,"Knights coach Chris Andreassi said. "That's been our story. But people who came out today got to see a pretty good basketball game.

"And they got to see two of the best players in the area go at it one last time."

Knoch senior forward Rob Briggs guarded Cress most of the day and limited him to eight points through three quarters.

"Playing an afternoon game, everybody's body clock was a little off early,"Mars coach Rob Carmody said. "But you could see the energy level pick up on both sides as the game went on.

"It's Knoch and Mars, number one, a great rivalry. Plus, even though both teams are out of the playoffs, we are two playoff-caliber teams."

Knoch (8-14, 3-9) scored the first basket of the game, but Dave Petruska answered with his first of four treys on the day and the Knights never got the lead again.

Knoch dropped its sixth straight game. Mars had lost five of six coming into Saturday's contest.

Dante DeTillio was fouled while making a lay-up early in the third quarter, but missed the subsequent free throw. Mars teammate Vinny Smith grabbed the rebound and stuck it in, giving the Planets a 34-24 lead with 6:25 left in the period.

Knoch rallied to tie the game as senior guard Kyle Reiser converted a pair of steals into lay-ups to key the spurt early in the fourth period. Reiser fouled out with six minutes remaining, however.

"Losing Kyle really hurt because he was having a great game and is one of our better ball handlers,"Andreassi said.

Consecutive lay-ups by Aaron Boldy and Jake McTighe pulled the Knights even for the final time, at 50-50, with 4:18 to play.

But Cress stuck back an offensive rebound and Chris Herold drained a trey. When Cress converted another lay-up, Mars had a 57-50 advantage with 1:19 left and the issue was decided.

"We lost a hard-fought game with Indiana (73-71) that knocked us out of the playoffs,"Carnmody said. "Had we won that one and this one, we'd be in.

"Our kids could have found a lot of excuses to come in here and lay an egg today, but that didn't happen."

Cress had seven rebounds and four assists to go with his 18 points. He needs six points to break Tim Frye's school career scoring record of 1,261 points. The Planets close the season hosting St. Joseph's on Monday night.

Vinny Smith had 12 points and nine boards for the Planets (10-12, 5-7) with Petruska adding 12 points.

Briggs paced Knoch with 17 points. Reiser added 11 before fouling out and McTighe grabbed seven rebounds.

"Injuries hurt both of our teams this year,"Carmody said. "Smith's been bothered by a calf injury since early January and they missed (Shawn)Samek for a number of games.

"Unfortunately, we play in a section where if you're not at full strength, you can find yourself coming out on the short end of the stick."

Besides Samek suffering a dislocated shoulder this season, Knoch didn't have would-be returning starter Alex Whisler all year, Reiser's been bothered by a quad injury and Michael Gallagher missed some time with a hamstring problem.

"From the players' standpoint, I feel badly for those guys, for what might have been,"Andreassi said. "But as a coach, I can't offer any excuses.

"We won a lot of tough, close games last year. This year, we didn't win those games. I'm going to have to examine that."

Mars won the junior varsity game, 50-48, as Ian Hindley tied the game with two free throws with 14 seconds left and won it with two more throws with six seconds on the clock.

MARS63Chris Herold 4-7 0-0 9, Dave Petruska 4-4 0-0 12, Vinny Smith 6-11 0-1 12, Steve Cress 7-18 4-6 18, Ben Szilogy 2-6 0-0 5, Christian Locher 0-1 0-0 0, Alec Mahon 0-0 0-0 0, Dante DeTillio 3-6 1-4 7, Brody Evanson 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 26-53 5-10 63.

KNOCH58Michael Gallagher 2-5 0-0 5, Kyle Reiser 4-9 2-2 11, Jake McTighe 2-3 3-3 7, Rob Briggs 6-13 5-6 17, Shawn Samek 3-8 2-2 8, Aaron Boldy 3-6 0-0 6, Josh Lio 0-0 0-0 0, Zach Gross 2-3 0-0 4. Totals: 22-47 12-13 58.

Mars 11 16 19 17—63Knoch 10 14 16 18—583-point goals: Herold, Petruska 4, Szilogy; Gallagher, Reiser

JV: Mars, 50-48 (M:Dante DeTillio 16, Ian Hindley 11, K:Micah Lio 12, Chris Cetnar 10)

Monday: St. Joseph's at Mars, Pine-Richland at Knoch