ADAMS TWP — Robby Carmody took a couple of dribbles, clutched the basketball firmly in his hands and soared to the hoop, dunking with such authority the rim and backboard rattled and shook.

It was a punctuation mark on a rout for the Mars boys basketball team over Highlands and notification that Carmody, a 6-foot-4 sophomore guard, had returned and was back in form after a knee injury had sidelined him for nearly three weeks.

Carmody had four dunks in the game and scored 16 points off the bench for the Planets, who jumped out quickly on the Golden Rams and cruised to an 89-57 home win.

“We went to the doc this morning and they cleared him,” said Mars coach and Robby’s father, Rob Carmody. “The question today was, ‘He was cleared — do we let him play?’ And our trainer said, ‘That would be like holding a piece of meat in front of a hungry lion’ because Robby is so competitive.

“He got cleared today and he was like, ‘I’m playing,’” the coach added. “My wife and I really hadn’t discussed it yet.”

Coach Carmody said he knew, however, that his son was ready to go.

Robby proved it on the court, playing fearlessly and making a huge impact scoring, passing and on defense.

Getting to play meant the world to both Carmody the player and Carmody the coach.

“I was ecstatic,” Robby said. “All the prayers everyone said and all the prayers I said, they really paid off. I came back pretty fast, faster than they expected, and I made a full recovery.”

Robby was afraid when the injury happened during the second day of the Mars tip-off tournament that he would be out longer.

But the injury was merely a hyperextension and the prognosis was he would miss two-to-three weeks.

Still, it was difficult for the young Carmody to watch his teammates play without being able to join them on the court, especially on a four-game trip to Las Vegas last week.

“Middle of last week, I thought I was ready, but there really was no point in rushing me back to play in Vegas,” Robby said. “I was just excited tonight to finally be able to play. I didn’t expect to play that much, but I was fine. The adrenalin took over.”

And Mars’ outside shooting took over as well.

The Planets (6-3, 3-0) were hot from the perimeter early in building a quick 20-6 lead.

Mars led 28-18 after the first quarter and hit six 3-pointers in the frame.

Highlands never got as close as 10 points from the lead again.

The Rams (4-3, 3-1) were coming off a 102-73 win over Hampton last week, but Highlands coach Tyler Stoczynski said this game served as a reminder that one game does not make a season.

“This was a much-needed reality check,” Stoczynski said. “We played a very good game the other day, but we got brought back to Earth real quick today.”

Mars led 48-30 at the half, but stomped on the gas pedal even in the second half — and at the start of the fourth quarter in particular — to lead 85-51 when the starters left the floor after Carmody’s final dunk with four minutes left in the game.

Mars went 2-2 in Vegas and Coach Carmody said it galvanized the team.

“That’s why we do things like that,” the coach said. “We played some terrific competition.”

Christian Schmitt led all scorers with 20 points. Steve Castello added 19 and John Castello added 16 for the Planets, who don’t play again until Jan. 2.

Coach Carmody pointed to Steve Castello as an example of what the Mars program is all about.

“He’s such a great example for our kids. He didn’t play much for us last year. He’s grown and he has schools coming to watch him play. It was always, ‘Hey, that’s John’s brother. Now it might be, ‘Hey, that’s Steve’s brother.’”

HIGHLANDS 57

Ryan Boda 5-10 0-0 14, Jamison Nee 6-14 0-0 13, Lamar McKamey 2-2 0-0 4, Dom Martinka 0-0 0-1 0, Tyler Grosholz 0-3 0-0 0, Lavontae Martin 3-4 3-4 9, AJ Reiger 0-4 4-4 4, Mitch Dezort 4-13 5-5 13. Totals: 20-50 12-14 57.

MARS 89

Aaron Gruber 3-6 0-0 9, John Castello 8-11 0-0 16, Bailey Trzeciak 2-6 0-0 6, Steve Castello 6-11 2-2 19, Christian Schmitt 8-13 2-2 20, Robby Carmody 7-10 2-2 17, Ryan Giallonardo 0 1-2 1, Nate Sablowski 0-0 1-2 1, Sam Morrisey 0-1 0-0 0, Brent Ashbaugh 0-2 0-0 0, Mike Wright 0-1 0-0 0, Nate Rosswog 0-2 0-0 0. Totals: 34-63 8-10 89.

Highlands 18 12 15 12 — 57

Mars28 20 19 22 — 89

3-point goals: Highlands 5 (Boda 4, Nee); Mars 13 (Gruber 3, Trzeciak 2, S. Castello 5, Schmitt 2, Carmody)

JV: Mars 43-31

Jan. 2: Mars at Freeport