On the surface, the Mars boys basketball team is young.

No seniors start.

But the Planets are experienced beyond their age.

The lineup is made up of four juniors and a freshman, yet the Planets find themselves tied with District 12 champion Neumann-Goretti with the most wins in the state in Class AAA and are in the Elite Eight.

“We’ve been playing together for a long, long time,” said Mars junior forward John Castello. “We’ve played AAU together. We do everything together. We’re a team.”

That has shown this season as the Planets have a 26-2 record heading into a PIAA Class AAA quarterfinals clash with District 10 champion Cathedral Prep (21-6) at 7 p.m. today at Sharon High School.

“There are times we look like we haven’t coached or done anything,” said Mars coach Rob Carmody. “It boils down to at this time of the season everybody is good. Everybody knows their systems, knows what they are doing. Scouting at this point is so far advanced, they know where you want to go. So, it boils down to heart and execution.”

Mars has had to show a lot of heart after it was upset by Ambridge in the second round of the WPIAL playoffs.

The Planets had to win an elimination game and then a seeding game to get the fifth spot out of the WPIAL in the state playoffs.

In the state playoffs, Mars has won handily over Somerset and pulled out an overtime win against Beaver Falls.

In Cathedral Prep, Mars will get a team that is capable of playing any style of basketball.

The Ramblers have won games when they have scored more than 80 points and have also won games when they have scored in the low 40s.

“That’s been one of our strengths this season,” said Prep coach Mark Majewski. “We’ve been able to adapt to different styles of play. We can go up-and-down in a game like we had against Hampton with a ton of 3s or we can play a slower game like we did against Ambridge.”

Unlike Mars, Prep has four seniors and a junior in its starting lineup.

Senior guard/forward Matt Colpoys leads the Ramblers in scoring at 14.5 points per game.

Senior center Charlie Fessler, who is heading to Northwestern to play football, averaged a double-double this season and junior shooting guard Carter Cross, has already committed to play baseball at Nebraska.

Fessler didn’t play last season as a junior.

“He took basically a year-and-a-half off and he didn’t start for us at the beginning of the season,” Majewski said. “He’s really come on in the last month.”

Like Mars, Prep played a challenging non-league schedule, losing in January to Pope John XXIII of New Jersey, which at the time was ranked 23rd in the nation by USA Today.

Prep’s chief concern, Majewski said, will be finding a way to keep Castello from hurting them.

Castello is coming off a game against Beaver Falls in which he scored 29 points to go with 19 rebounds.

Castello is averaging 16.7 points per game to lead four Planets who average in double digits.

Freshman guard/forward Robby Carmody (13.6), forward Alex Gruber (13.3) and point guard Christian Schmitt (11.2) are the others.

Mars and Castello are going to trust what has gotten them to this point so far.

The theory: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“I tell our guys, ‘Just stick to the process,’” Carmody said. “The way we play, we’re going to give up some runs because we like to pressure. We play fast on offense, so we’re going to have turnovers. Stick to the process.”