WHITEHALL — Every high school basketball coach would love for his team to be playing like a well-oiled machine in late February.

That's what Mars boys coach Rob Carmody was witness to Tuesday night.

The Planets shot 58.3 percent (21-of-36) from the field and never trailed in a 57-42 defeat of West Mifflin in a WPIAL Class AAA first-round playoff at Baldwin High School.

Mars (17-6) will face undefeated New Castle, a 74-58 victor over Highlands, in a quarterfinal clash Friday at a site and time to be determined.

Aside from advancing the Planets to the next round, Tuesday's victory was a historic win for Mars.

“We've won preliminary round games before, but this is our first ever first-round playoff win,” said Carmody. “The first step to winning any game is believing you can and I couldn't have asked for a better game out of the guys tonight. I'm so proud of them.”

The Titans (13-9) made things interesting by opening the final period on a 9-0 run, cutting Mars' lead to 45-34.

The Planets' first points of the period came on Owen Nearhoof's two free throws with 3:53 left in the game.

West Mifflin, which struggled on offense much of the night, was unable to muster a final push late in the game.

“We didn't give Mars our best game, but a lot of that is due to their play,” said Titans coach Lance Maha.

The Planets set the tone for the contest with a 13-3 run to begin the game.

Unlike in its WPIAL playoff loss to Uniontown last season in which Mars' shooting was dreadful from the field, the Planets hit eight of their 11 attempts in the first quarter Tuesday.

Four of those makes came from beyond the arc, as Mars' perimeter shooting helped give the Planets a 20-9 lead after eight minutes of play.

“We run a drill in practice where we see how many 3-pointers we can make in a four-minute span,” said Carmody. “The other day, we made 121. It carried over into today, we were hitting most of our shots in the shoot-around before the game.”

Another area of dominance for Mars was on the glass. The Planets outrebounded West Mifflin 30-9, including 16-3 in the first half.

“Josh Goetz (12 rebounds) did a great job on the boards,” said Carmody. “He took over the game there late in the first half.”

The 6-foot-7 junior center tallied six of his 15 points in the second period, two of them coming on a putback that gave his team a 33-16 edge at intermission.

“Something that was uncharacteristic for us was that we seemed to be nervous on the defensive end,” said Maha. “I'm not sure why that was the case, we played good teams this year — Woodland Hills, Jeannette, Greensburg Central Catholic.

“But even if you're getting open looks, you still have to make them,” he added. “Mars did and that's a credit to them.”

The Planets also received 15 points from Zach May and 11 courtesy of Mitch Buzard.

Kyron Mason led the Titans with 14 points.

The Planets are now faced with a New Castle team averaging a staggering 81 points per game.

“It will be a great test for us,” said Carmody.

MARS 57Owen Nearhoof 1 4-4 7, Matt Getsy 3 1-1 7, Mitch Buzard 4 1-2 11, Zach May 5 3-4 15, Josh Goetz 7 1-1 15, Jason Lozzi 1 0-2 2, Ben Erdahl 0 0-0 0, Brett Kloc 0 0-0 0, Gabe Spurlock 0 0-0 0, Austin Fetsko 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 21 10-14 57.

WEST MIFFLIN 42Cye Murphy 2 1-2 5, Derrick Fulmore 1 1-2 3, Ryan Catalogna 1 0-0 2, Ryan Maha 3 1-2 8, Anthony Rotella 1 0-0 3, Kyron Mason 5 2-2 14, Josh Harris 2 0-0 6, Cleave Randolph 0 1-2 1, Ryan Kandsberger 0 0-0 0, Davon Dutrieville 0 0-0 0, Frank Cutillo 0 0-0 0, Brian Kolar 0 0-0 0, Ben Ezell 0 0-0 0.

Totals: 15 6-10 42.

Mars 20 13 12 12—57West Mifflin 9 7 9 17—423-point goals: Mars 5 (Buzard 2, May 2, Nearhoof); West Mifflin 6 (Mason 2, Harris 2, Rotella, Maha).

Friday: Mars vs. New Castle, WPIAL Class AAA quarterfinal, site and time TBD