PINE TWP, Allegheny County — Christian Locher may be a sophomore, but he's playing like a seasoned veteran.

A 6-feet-1 guard for the Mars boys basketball team, Locher scored a game-high 26 points, including five 3-pointers in a 48-45 win over host Pine-Richland in the St. Barnabas Classic Saturday night.

He drained his last trifecta with 2:06 left in the game, putting the Planets up 45-41.

Then, with 9.5 seconds remaining, he calmly stepped to the free throw line and made both attempts for a 48-45 edge.

"He has such a great commitment to becoming a great player," said Mars coach Rob Carmody. "He wants to shoot the ball in pressure situations and the bigger the shot, the more confidence I have that he'll make it."

It was a sweep for Mars' varsity squads, as the Planets' girls defeated the Rams 40-32.

Locher saw varsity playing time as a freshman, but nobody expected him to have the type of impact he's achieved this year.

"I thought my progress would be more gradual," he said. "But I'm not feeling any pressure out there. I just shoot the ball."

After his two free throws gave Mars the 48-45 lead, Pine-Richland had a chance to tie the game after calling a timeout with 5.7 seconds left.

The ball ended up in the hands of Andy Andrle, whose 3-point attempt was off the mark as the game ended.

The Rams (2-5) made seven 3-pointers in the game.

"I'm satisfied with the look we got," said Rams' coach Brian Gaetano. "We were able to get the ball into the hands of a very capable shooter. It just didn't fall for him."

Vinny Smith had a strong game for Mars, scoring 14 points, including eight in the first half, after which his team led 26-18.

Locher, who scored 15 of his points in the second half, was chosen as Mars' Most Valuable Player.

Pine-Richland's Eric Holmes and Ian Hennessy shared MVP honors, scoring 17 and 15 points, respectively.

Mars is off to a 5-1 start to the season.

"The guys are just having fun and everybody is contributing," said Carmody.

Girls Basketball Mars 40, Pine-Richland 32

Mars' defense was good in the first half, but the Planets saved their best for the final two quarters.

Trailing the Rams 22-11 at the break, Mars surrendered just 10 points in the second half en route to the non-section win.

"We may have had just 11 points at halftime, but we were only down 11 as well," said Planets' coach Tony Howard. "That's definitely manageable."

Especially when you've got a player the caliber of Lily Grenci.

The senior scored just five points in the first half, but ended the game with 20.

Senior center Kehle Pelles also performed well with a double-double (10 points and 12 rebounds). She also had several key blocks.

"Kehle's had an outstanding season so far," said Howard. "We knew that Pine-Richland is a perimeter-oriented team and our goal was to defend that. And when their guards drove to the hoop, we had Kehle there to defend it."

The Rams (1-6) made just four of 28 shots from the field in the third and fourth quarters.

Elaine Hasek's 3-pointer for Mars just before the end of the third quarter tied the game at 24.

P-R's Emma Richert gave her team a brief 26-24 lead with a field goal with 6:46 left in the fourth, but Mars outscored the Rams 16-6 the rest of the way.

Richert was named P-R's MVP after scoring 14 points and Grenci took the honor home for Mars (6-1).

BoysMARS 48Chris Herold 0 1-2 1, Christian Locher 8 5-6 26, Luke Gruber 1 0-2 3, Dante DeTillio 2 0-2 4, Vinny Smith 6 2-2 14, Brad Weischedel 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 8-14 48.

PINE-RICHLAND 45Eric Holmes 6 3-4 17, Erik Kordenbrock 1 0-0 2, Chris Rader 2 0-2 6, Ian Hennessy 4 4-6 15, Tom Johnson 2 1-2 5, Mike Felker 0 0-2 0, Andy Andrle 0 0-0 0. Totals: 15 8-16 45.

Mars 13 13 9 13—48Pine-Richland 12 6 13 14—453-point goals: Mars 6 (Locher 5, Gruber); Pine-Richland 7 (Hennessy 3, Holmes 2, Rader 2).

JV: Pine-Richland 56-35

Tuesday: Mars at Highlands

GirlsMARS 40Ally Demetriadis 0 1-3 1, Ashley Lynch 1 0-0 2, Lily Grenci 6 8-10 20, Elaine Hasek 1 0-0 3, Kehle Pelles 4 2-4 10, Alexa Lee 2 0-0 4, Maureen Cress 0 0-0 0. Totals: 14 11-17 40.

PINE-RICHLAND 32Abby Altman 0 1-2 1, Katie Wise 1 3-4 5, Tori Pikur 3 0-3 6, Lisa Rader 1 2-2 4, Emma Richert 6 0-1 14, Kara Peters 1 0-0 2, Carolyn Steger 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 6-12 32.

Mars 5 6 13 16—40Pine-Richland 11 11 2 8—323-point goals: Mars (Hasek); Pine-Richland 2 (Richert 2).

JV: Pine-Richland 48-29

Monday: Mars at Highlands