HAMPTON— For 24 minutes, the Mars boys basketball team played its way toward a big section road win.

Unfortunately for the Planets, the game lasts 32.

Hampton missed only two shots in the fourth quarter, sinking seven of eight from the floor, 10 of 11 from the foul line, in rallying for a 60-53 victory Tuesday night.

"We're not quite there yet, that's all,"Mars coach Rob Carmody said. "I'm taking a lot more positives from this game than negatives, that's for sure."

The Planets (3-1, 1-1) jumped out to a 16-5 lead, hitting six of their first eight shots. Four times in the first three quarters, Hampton pulled to within two points.

The Talbots (4-1, 2-0) never took the lead until a Matt Madia layup gave Hampton a 42-40 edge with 6:36 left in the game.

"I'm proud of the way our guys hung in and kept fighting,"Hampton coach Joe Lafko said. "Nobody panicked. We just kept playing."

It was a quick flurry at the start of the fourth quarter that turned the tide Hampton's way.

Mars took a 40-35 lead into the final eight minutes, but the margin evaporated quickly. Hampton's Tim Donegan converted a three-point play 22 seconds into the quarter. Madia, a senior guard, stole the ball at midcourt and drove the other way for a game-tying layup.

After a second Madia layup gave the Talbots their first lead, Vinny Smith's layup knotted the game at 42 for Mars.

Madia answered again with a 3-pointer, giving Hampton a 45-42 edge with 5:31 to play. The Talbots never trailed again.

Madia scored 12 points and turned both of his fourth-quarter steals into easy buckets.

"Once we started scoring in transition, things began to go our way,"Lafko said. "Mars almost came in here and stole a home section game away from us, though."

Madia is averaging 25 points per game and scored 26 on this night, nailing three treys.

"You pick your poison, trying to guard that team,"Carmody said. "You can come out and get Madia outside, but they've got three 6-foot-7 guys they can lob the ball into."

The Planets were held without a field goal from the 5:43 mark of the fourth quarter until 54 seconds remained, when Christian Locher sank his fifth 3-pointer of the night. The sophomore led Mars with 21 points.

By the time Locher hit that final trey, however, his team had fallen behind 56-45.

Mars sank only three of eight free throws in the final quarter.

"We have to get to the line more. And we have to make the shots once we get there,"Carmody said. "That's OK. We're only four games in and have a bunch of guys playing varsity ball for the first time. We're going to get better in a lot of areas."

Smith had 16 points and six rebounds for the Planets, who were outboarded only 25-21 despite giving up a lot of size.

"That's not bad,"Carmody said of his team's rebounding effort. "I have to give Luke Gruber a lot of credit tonight. He's 6-foot and had to guard (6-7) Bill Luther and he held him to seven points."

MARS 53Chris Herold 4-8 0-0 9, Christian Locher 7-12 2-3 21, Luke Gruber 0-3 0-0 0, Dante DeTillio 1-2 2-5 4, Vinny Smith 8-13 0-0 16, Alec Mahon 1-3 0-0 2, Brad Weischiedel 0-2 1-2 1. Totals: 21-43 5-10 53

HAMPTON 60Bill Luther 2-7 3-4 7, Nate Winek 1-1 1-2 3, Chris Dill 3-5 2-2 9, Brian Steele 1-1 0-0 2, Jorden Paskorz 0-1 0-0 0, Matt Madia 9-17 5-6 26, Tim Donegan 5-8 3-3 13, T.J. Brown 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 21-40 14-17 60

Mars 16 11 13 13—53Hampton 9 14 12 25—603-point goals: Herold, Locher 5; Dill, Madia 3

JV: Hampton, 68-48 (H:T.J. Brown 20, M:Mike Lindenbaum 12)

Friday: Hampton at Knoch, Deer Lakes at Mars