ADAMS TWP — The Knoch boys basketball team received new life before its regular season finale, only to have Mars snuff it out.

In the Knights' game against Valley Tuesday, the Vikings used several players who had missed school the day of the game.

Valley ruled that the game, which ended with the Vikings winning 54-51, would be forfeited, giving the Knights a win and improving the team's section record to 5-6.

A victory against the Planets (15-7, 7-5) Friday would have tied both Knoch and Mars for fourth place in Section 1-AAA and both teams would be in the upcoming playoff tournament.

But the Planets had other ideas.

Trailing 22-20 at halftime, Mars outscored the Knights 28-13 in the second half to grab a 48-35 win.

"Everybody was aware of Valley's situation and that we had a chance to make the playoffs," said Knoch coach Chris Andreassi. "We didn't win, but our kids put forth a tremendous effort."

"We knew Knoch would be playing with desperation," said Mars coach Rob Carmody. "It was going to be a playoff atmosphere."

The Mars defense held the Knights (8-13, 5-7) to 16 field goal attempts in the second half, with Knoch making five.

The Knights trailed 32-26 entering the final quarter, but when Michael Gallagher hit a 3-pointer with 5:18 to play, Knoch pulled to within 34-33.

Gallagher tallied his team's next points from the free-throw line 4:33 later, but Mars held a 13-point lead.

"Our struggles in the second half came down to two things," said Andreassi. "One, Mars plays tougher defense than any other team in this section. And when we did get shots off, we didn't make them."

While Knoch's offense sputtered, Mars' proved efficient.

Though the Planets didn't score in bunches in the second half, they received clutch points from several players.

All seven of Chris Herold's points in the game came in the final 16 minutes, as did seven of Dante DeTillio's nine points.

Vinny Smith and Christian Locher completed conventional three-point plays within 1:22 of each other, after which the Planets' edge was 44-33 with 2:24 to play.

"It helps the guys' confidence that so many people contributed tonight," said Carmody. "But honestly, it's been that way all season for us."

Gallagher led all scorers with 15 points and ends his high school career with the most 3-pointers (167) in Knights' history.

Smith (13 points) and Locher (10) both reached double figures for Mars, while Brad Weischedel, Luke Gruber and Alec Mahon all played key roles in the win.

The Planets await their playoff seeding, which will be announced Tuesday.

KNOCH 35Michael Gallagher 4 5-6 15, Andrew Wirtz 1 1-2 3, Chris Cetnar 1 2-2 4, Jake McTighe 3 1-2 7, Nathan Junk 2 0-0 4, Micah Lio 1 0-0 2, Brandon Flick 0 0-0 0, Ethan Danner 0 0-0 0, Kevin Wood 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 12 9-12 35.

MARS 48Chris Herold 1 4-6 7, Brad Weischedel 1 0-0 3, Christian Locher 4 1-2 10, Alec Mahon 2 2-4 6, Dante DeTillio 4 1-1 9, Vinny Smith 4 5-10 13, Luke Gruber 0 0-0 0, Tim Vandall 0 0-0 0, Ian Hindley 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 16 13-23 48.

Knoch 9 13 4 9—35Mars 10 10 12 16—483-point goals: Knoch 2 (Gallagher 2); Mars 3 (Herold, Weischedel, Locher).

JV: Knoch 44-31 (K-Hickey and Tuzikow, 9 points); (M-Hindley 10 points).

Next: Mars in WPIAL Class AAA playoffs, TBD