CRANBERRY TWP — Blink at your own risk.

If you do, you might miss a 10-0 Mars run. Or you might miss a thunderous dunk by super sophomore Robby Carmody. Or you might miss Alex Gruber come off the bench, palm the ball and windmill up a spinning layup that kisses off the backboard and through the net.

This just in: the Mars boys basketball team is good.

Very good.

And the Planets showed it in an 83-35 dismantling of Laurel Highlands Wednesday night in the first round of the WPIAL Class AAA playoffs at Cardinal Wuerl North Catholic.

“All of a sudden six, eight, 10 points in a row,” said Mars coach Rob Carmody. “That's a product of our defense. That's a product of getting the rebound and getting out and going.”

Mars (18-5), however, had a bit of trouble getting out and going from the start, trailing 6-4 two minutes into the game.

“Our guys were still kind of feeling things out,” said Coach Carmody. “They were still plodding a little bit.”

Then they went into a full gallop.

“We got the pace where we wanted it to be,” Coach Carmody said.

Robby Carmody hit a 3-pointer to put the Planets up for good, and then Mars went off on a 10-0 run in a little less than two minutes of game time to end the first quarter with a 25-10 advantage.

Robby Carmody scored 15 points in that opening quarter and also had three rim-rattling dunks.

It only got worse from there for Laurel Highlands (14-10).

Mars led 46-23 at the half, went on another big run — this one a 12-0 flurry that came in just two minutes of game time, and then triggered the mercy rule with two minutes still remaining in the third quarter after a 20-2 stretch.

By the beginning of the fourth quarter, Robby Carmody had 30 points; Laurel Highlands had 29.

Robby Carmody, though, flashed an aw-shucks smile when told he had scored more points than Laurel Highlands when he left the floor for good.

“That's nice, but I owe a lot of that to my teammates,” the younger Carmody said. “They set me up.”

Mars has been set up well by the return of Gruber.

In just his third game back after missing most of the season with a foot injury, the 6-foot-4 senior came off the bench to score 16 points.

“He just adds such a dimension,” Coach Carmody said. “He's just so physical and so aggressive and strong. (Wednesday) the game came easy to him. (Wednesday) he played like he had been playing all year. Every day he gets a little bit better.”

John Castello added 11 points and 10 rebounds and Aaron Gruber also reached double digits with 10 points.

Meanwhile the Planets held Laurel Highlands' leading scorer, Bryce Laskey, to just seven points.

Mars had gone 10 days since its last game. The Planets did scrimmage twice last week, but as Coach Carmody said, it's not the same as live action.

Mars will play Steel Valley Friday in the next round of the WPIAL playoffs at a site and time to be determined.

“I'm kind of happy we don't have a lot of days off between this one and the next one,” Coach Carmody said. “We'll get in the gym (today) and shoot and stretch and get ready to play Friday.”

LAUREL HIGHLANDS 35

Bryce Laskey 3-11 0-0 7, Cameron Holt 1-5 0-0 2, Jake Swartz 4-11 1-4 9, Daniel Cavinee 2-4 0-0 4, Hudson Novak 2-9 2-2 7. Wil Diechart 1-2 0-0 2, Chayton Burchick 2-7 0-0 4, J.J. Holbert 0-1 0-0 0, David Runco 0-2 0-0 0, Elijah Guynn 0-0 0-0 0, Nick Simpson 0-0 0-0 0, Josh Burns 0-1 0-0 0, Greg Lancaster 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 15-54 3-6 35.

MARS 83

Aaron Gruber 4-6 0-0 10, John Castello 4-5 3-4 11, Steve Castello 1-5 0-0 3, Christian Schmidt 3-7 0-0 8, Robby Carmody 10-11 8-9 30, Alex Gruber 5-8 6-7 16, Sam Morrissey 0-0 0-0 0, Bailey Trzeciak 0-2 1-2 0, Ryan Giallonardo 0-3 0-0 0, Brent Ashbaugh 0-1 0-0 0, Nate Sablowski 2-4 0-0 4, Nate Rosswog 0-2 0-0 0, Mike Wright 0-0 0-2 0. Totals: 29-54 18-24 83.

Laurel Highlands 10 13 6 6 — 35

Mars25 21 27 10 — 83

3-point goals: Laurel Highlands 2 (Laskey, Novak); Mars 7 (Aaron Gruber 2, S. Castello, Schmitt 2, Carmody 2)

Friday: Mars vs. Steel Valley, sit and time to be determined