ADAMS TWP — The three Hampton big men made Vinny Smith look small.

That's not an easy thing to do. The Mars senior stands 6-feet-5 and has a wingspan that would make United Airlines jealous.

But Smith had to go up against 19 feet, 9 inches of Hampton Talbots inside Tuesday night.

No problem. All Smith did was record 31 points — 11 in the decisive fourth quarter — and 15 rebounds in a 64-56 Mars win.

"They were three trees in there," said Mars coach Rob Carmody. "(Smith) played unbelievable. We've leaned on him all year."

Smith didn't mind facing those Hampton big men. In fact, he relished the challenge.

"It's OK," Smith said. "We have some guys. Christian Locher can hit 3s all night and Chris Herold goes to the rack hard. It's hard to stop just one guy."

Hampton certainly couldn't.

Smith was hot early, scoring eight first-quarter points.

Mars (9-5, 4-3) jumped out to a 12-3 lead, but the Talbots (13-3, 6-2) stormed right back with an 11-0 run.

Hampton led by three at the half and 38-37 late in the third quarter before Mars made one last run that held up.

"We were down at halftime and I think a month ago we probably lose that basketball game," Carmody said. "But our guys have matured together, worked together and stuck to what we want to do."

While Smith had the eye-popping numbers at the end of the night, it was a shot by Luke Gruber that was the biggest

With Mars leading 42-38 midway through the fourth quarter, Gruber hit a 3-pointer that quickly turned a four-point game into a seven-point one.

That put Hampton in scramble mode and the Talbots could only draw as close as five points after Gruber's clutch shot.

Gruber finished with eight points.

"Luke has struggled with his shooting," Carmody said. "They don't give a defensive player of the year award in this section or anywhere else, but if they did, Luke should get it.

"He does all of that and he scored eight points," Carmody said. "We won by eight points."

The winning margin didn't matter. The fact that it did come for the Planets tightened the section race.

At 4-3 in section play, Mars trails Hampton, Valley and Highlands. All three of those teams have two section losses

"It was a huge game for us," Smith said. "This is the first step to get to the playoffs."

The schedule won't be easy for Mars, which faces three games in three days starting Thursday at Kittanning.

The last time the Planets faced the Wildcats, it took three overtimes to decide the outcome in Mars' favor.

HAMPTON 56Bill Luther 4-10 4-4 15, Nate Winek 2-8 7-10 11, Chris Dill 1-8 0-0 3, BrianSteele 0-2 0-0 0, T.J. Brown 3-7 2-2 8, Jordan Paskorz 0-0 0-0 0, Matt Nadia 4-12 0-0 9, Tim Donegan 4-11 0-0 8. Totals: 18-58 13-16 56

MARS 64Chris Herold 0-6 4-4 4, Brad Weischedel 1-5 2-6 5, Christian Locher 3-7 0-1 7, Luke Gruber 3-6 0-2 8, Alec Mahon 1-1 0-0 2, Dante DeTillio 2-4 3-4 7, Vinny Smith 11-20 7-11 31. Totals: 21-49 16-28 64

Hampton 12 15 11 16—56Mars 12 12 15 25—643-point goals: Luther 3, Dill, Nadia; Weischedel, Locher, Gruber 2, Smith 2

JV: Hampton 58-48

Thursday: Mars at Kittanning