MONROEVILLE — Franklin Regional's Kristin Iovino was attacking the basket in the second half of Saturday's WPIAL Class AAA preliminary game against Mars.

And that proved to be the downfall of the Planets.

The 6-foot guard-forward tallied 16 points in a nine-minute stretch to key the Panthers' 44-38 victory at Gateway High School. Iovino, a Sacred Heart recruit, finished with a game-high 27 points.

"We had two girls guarding her," said Mars coach Tony Howard. "She's a good player with good size and good strength.

"We were aware of her. Our girls battled her, but she was a little more than we could handle,"Howard added.

"Early in the game, we got it to her inside," said Panthers' coach Rob Greenleaf. "In the second half, they were double-teaming, triple-teaming, quadruple-teaming her, but she kept crashing.

"We were telling her to just go straight ... She's really good with the basketball," Greenleaf added.

Iovino helped Franklin Regional (11-14) erase a 23-19 deficit early in the third quarter, using an 11-2 stretch to open up a 30-25 lead with 2:09 left in the frame.

After Mars' Tori Gressang scored and Alexa Lee followed with a three-point play, the game was tied at 30.

Iovino, though, scored all of her team's eight points in an 8-2 run that opened up a 38-32 lead with six minutes remaining.

"We had a ton of contributions from a ton of people," said Greenleaf. "They didn't give Mars a lot of second shots. They cleaned up the glass. We always stress team defense and they did a good job on Grenci."

Mars (11-13) scored the next six points in a 1:17 span to tie the game at 38 with 3:23 remaining. The Planets made four of seven free throws, then a game-tying bucket by Ellen Kenitz gave Mars a chance to pull out the game.

The Panthers, however, closed the game by scoring the final six points — despite a 2-for-8 performance at the line down the stretch — to advance to the first-round game against Hopewell.

"Give (Franklin Regional) credit. They took Lily Grenci and Ellen Kenitz out of the game," said Howard. "We were looking for a third girl to step up. It wasn't good team basketball.

"It was such a tough game to get a flow in. There were too many free throws (29 attempts for FR; 13 for Mars) for a playoff basketball game. It's very frustrating for a coach and very frustrating for the girls."

The Panthers, however, converted just 14 of their 29 attempts, but seven of 10 in the first half.

There, the Panthers held a 12-9 lead early in the second period before Mars ripped off 10 consecutive points to take a 19-12 lead with 4:04 before halftime.

Grenci started the streak with a pair of baskets, the latter off a steal, which gave her 11 points at the time.

Franklin Regional scored seven of the final nine points of the half to make it a two-point game.

"We didn't want to play in the 60s," said Greenleaf. "I know Mars likes to go up and down the court. We didn't turn it over much and if we didn't give up easy scores, we'd feel good about that."

The game marked the final one for seniors Kenitz, Gressang, Kelsey Ferguson, Rachel Pinkerton and Katie Demetriadis. Howard was impressed with how they helped hold the team together despite a rough start.

"We were 0-4 in the section at one point," said Howard. "I give our seniors credit for perseverance and kept it together."

FRANKLIN REGIONAL 44Sarah McCarrison 2 1-2 5, Alexandra Obradovich 0 0-0 0, Kristin Iovino 9 9-13 27, Erin Cline 0 2-10 2, Monica Drutch 1 0-0 2, Jennifer Martin 2 2-4 6, Stephanie Vendemia 1 0-0 2, Kasey Segiel 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 14-29 44.

MARS 38Ashley Lynch 2 0-0 4, Ellen Kenitz 4 2-3 10, Lily Grenci 6 2-4 14, Tori Gressang 1 0-0 2, Elaine Hasek 0 0-0 0, Maureen Cress 0 2-3 2, Kelsey Ferguson 0 0-0 0, Alexa Lee 1 2-3 4, Ally Demetriadis 0 0-0 0, Kehle Pelles 1 0-0 2. Totals: 15 8-13 38.

Franklin Regional 7 12 15 10—44Mars 7 14 11 6—383-point goals: None