Rams pin a pair of losses on Planets

By DEREK PYDA Eagle Staff Writer

January 03, 2008 Last Updated: January 04, 2008 09:37 AM High School

Mars' Lily Grenci takes a shot in front of Pine-Richland's Emily Karr Wednesday in the Rams' 52-48 win over the Planets.

ADAMS TWP — The Mars girls basketball team found itself in a huge hole against Pine-Richland.

And the Planets almost pulled themselves out of it.

Mars was down just 28-27 at halftime, but that deficit grew to 42-32 by the end of the third quarter.

The Planets, held back by turnovers the entire game, pulled to within 49-46 when Tori Gressang made one of two free throws with 37.6 seconds remaining.

But free throws by Pine-Richland's Emma Richert and Katie Wise, coupled with a Planets offense that lost star Lily Grenci to five personal fouls earlier in the period, helped the Rams pull out a 52-48 win Wednesday in the first game of a doubleheader.

The second game saw the Mars boys lose a 61-51 decision to Pine-Richland.

"I know you can't do it, but if you take away those spells where we were giving the ball away, we're right in it," said Mars coach Tony Howard. "And the fact that we had a shot to win near the end of the game was great."

For the game, Mars turned the ball over 29 times compared to Pine-Richland's 16.

But entering the fourth period, the difference was even greater at 25-9.

"We're such a guard-oriented team and we count on our players being able to handle the ball well and shoot the ball well," said Rams coach Joe Frank. "If you go back and look at our results this season, it's easy to see the games in which we took care of the ball."

Over the next two quarters, Pine-Richland (8-4) outscored Mars 31-15, including 14-5 in the third period, before the Planets made their late charge.

Kehle Pelles added 10 points to the Planets' cause.

Mars (5-7, 1-4) re-enter section play tonight by hosting Kittanning.

Pine-Richland 61, Mars 51For Mars coach Rob Carmody, his team simply did not play well enough to beat the visiting Rams."When you're playing one of the better Quad A teams around and you go six-of-12 from the free throw line, commit the turnovers we did and I couldn't tell you how many layups we missed, you aren't going to have a chance to win," Carmody said after his team's loss. "We're lucky we didn't lose by more than 10 points."The Rams (9-4) drained 10 3-point goals in the game, which is a lot for a team that runs a half-court offense."They do a great job of setting screens and are very patient on offense," Carmody said.Fourteen of the Planets' 15 turnovers came in the first three quarters and they 48-43 entering the fourth.Mars (7-6) proceeded to miss nine of its first 10 field goal attempts in the fourth quarter, and when Pine-Richland's Eric Holmes sank a 3-pointer with 5:16 left to play, the Planets' deficit was 56-45.Leading Pine-Richland's attack was senior point guard Brett Matson, who scored a game-high 24 points, including 14 points in the second half."He's one of the best guards in all of the WPIAL," said Carmody. "If you don't get help defending him, he'll drive for a layup. If you do get help with him, he'll find the open guy."Mars senior forward Steve Cress, who was averaging 21 points entering the game, was held to 13 points. The Planets also received 11 points from junior guard Chris Herold.The Planets currently hold a 2-2 record in Section 1-AAA and will dive back into section play when they travel to Indiana on Friday.<a href="http://ads.butlereagle.com/rebound/gotw.html" target="_blank">Check out video highlights of this Game of the Week on our Rebound site!</a>GirlsPINE-RICHLAND 52Katie Wise 3 2-3 9, Kaleigh Jackson 2 2-2 6, Tori Pikur 1 2-4 4, Emma Richert 3 3-5 9, Carolyn Steger 4 3-7 11, Emily Karr 5 0-0 13, Brittany Kilian 0 0-0 0, Abbie Altman 0 0-0 0. Totals: 18 12-21 52.MARS 48Lily Grenci 9 4-6 22, Tori Gressang 0 1-2 1, Ellen Kenitz 2 0-0 4, Kelsey Ferguson 1 0-0 2, Alexa Lee 0 4-4 4, Ashley Lynch 1 3-4 5, Kehle Pelles 4 2-2 10, Elaine Hasek 0 0-2 0, Rachel Pinkerton 0 0-0 0, Ally Demetriadis 0 0-0 0. Totals: 17 14-20 48.Pine-Richland 11 17 14 10—52Mars 17 10 5 16—483-point goals: Pine-Richland 4 (Karr 3, Wise);Today: Kittanning at MarsBoysPINE-RICHLAND 61Eric Holmes 3 0-0 9, Eric Kordenbrock 1 3-4 5, R.J. White 2 0-0 5, Brett Matson 9 4-6 24, Kevin Wissinger 3 2-2 10, Ian Hennessy 2 0-0 6, Mike Felker 1 0-0 2, Tommy Johnson 0 0-0 0. Totals: 21 9-12 61.MARS 51Ben Szilogy 3 2-4 9, Steve Cress 5 3-6 13, Vinny Smith 3 1-2 7, Chris Herold 4 0-0 11, Dave Petruska 3 0-0 9, Dante DeTillio 1 0-0 2, Alec Mahon 0 0-0 0, Luke Gruber 0 0-0 0. Totals: 19 6-12 51.Pine-Richland 18 10 20 13—61Mars 10 17 16 8—513-point goals: Pine-Richland 10 (Holmes 3, Matson 2, Wissinger 2, Hennessy 2, White); Mars 7 (Petruska 3, Herold 3, Szilogy).Friday: Mars at Indiana

Chris Herold of Mars, right, tries to keep up with Pine-Richland's Brett Matson Wednesday. Matson scored 24 points to lead the Rams to a 61-51 win over the Planets.