ADAMS TWP — The holidays are all about being a gracious host.

Perhaps the Mars boys and girls basketball teams were a little too gracious.

Like family members handing out cookies and eggnog, the Planets handed their guests two championship game victories Thursday night in the Mars Christmas Tournament.

Northgate claimed the boys title over the Planets with a 51-43 win and Seneca Valley snatched a 48-35 decision from Mars in the girls contest.

A big reason for the hospitality by both Mars' teams was poor shooting.

The boys shot 43 percent from the floor while the girls hit a mere 24 percent of their attempts.

"We couldn't make a layup," said Mars girls coach Dave Sylvester. "We couldn't make anything."

Girls

Kelsey Spencer could, however.

The Seneca Valley senior guard scored 14 points on 6-of-9 shooting, most of them difficult shots, to help the Raiders to the victory.

She also had eight rebounds.

For her efforts, Spencer was named the tournament MVP.

"The thing with Kelsey is, as long as she is aggressive, I'm happy," said Seneca Valley coach KellyMathews. "When she's aggressive, she does the kinds of things she did for us tonight, whether it is scoring for herself or creating opportunities for her teammates."

After Mars (8-2) grabbed an early lead, Seneca Valley (8-3) went on a 10-3 run, keyed by Spencer, to take a 13-6 lead.

The Planets never got closer.

They certainly tried.

After falling behind by as many as 14 points on two occasions in the second half, Mars managed to crawl back to within 10 both times before fading.

Jackie Mangola added 13 points for the Raiders.

Lily Grenci scored 15 for Mars, which had its third straight poor shooting night after a 7-0 start.

While Sylvester is concerned, he isn't thinking about breaking the glass on the panic button just yet.

"I know what it is; it's all just shooting," Sylvester said. "We're just not putting the ball in the hole. We're doing everything else right."

Boys

For one quarter, Steve Cress and the Mars boys basketball team dominated.

Unfortunately for the Planets, there were those other three quarters.

Cress scored eight points, had seven rebounds and four blocked shots in a two-minute span of the second quarter to help Mars go on a 14-0 run to close the half with a 23-20 lead.

Then the worst thing happened to Mars: halftime.

"Maybe if we didn't have that 10-minute break and could have kept playing, things would have been different," said Mars coach Rob Carmody. "Whatever got into Steve Cress during that quarter, we needed to keep it."

But Mars didn't.

Cress finished with 12 points in the second quarter and 19 in the game. He also had 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots.

But the Planets had only four players score points and Cress was held scoreless in the first and fourth periods — his play a microcosm of the way his team performed.

"You can't bookend games like that," Carmody said. "Unfortunately, we've had games where we've played great for one or two quarters. We have to play like that for four quarters."

Chris Herold and Vinny Smith each had 10 points for Mars. The only other scorer was Dave Petruska with three.

Mars (3-8) had problems containing Northgate point guard Jon Valeriano, who scored 28 points and was named the tournament MVP.

Yet the Planets still led by six midway through the third quarter and were deadlocked with Northgate at 43 with 1:27 remaining in the game before the Flames closed the contest with the final eight points.

GirlsSENECAVALLEY 48Aly Eagle 3-5 2-2 9 Kelsey Spencer 6-9 2-4 14, Kelsey Patsilevas 3-8 0-2 8, Amanda Johnson 0-1 4-4 4, Jackie Mangola 3-5 7-8 13, Catherine Messmer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 15-29 15-20 48

MARS 35Maggie Bulman 1-8 2-2 4, Haley Geyer 2-8 0-0 5, Megan Gibson 2-9 1-3 6, Cara Hudac 1-7 0-0 2, Vanessa Pappas 0-1 0-0 0, Karly Takach 1-3 0-0 2, Lily Grenci 4-10 7-8 15. Totals: 11-46 10-13 35

Seneca Valley 11 11 10 16—48Mars 6 6 10 13—353-point goals: Eagle, Patsilevas 2, Geyer, Gibson

Tuesday: Butler at Seneca Valley; Highlands at Mars

BoysNORTHGATE 51Kevin Williams 1-1 0-2 2, Doug Sheerer 1-5 0-1 2, Jon Valeriano 10-21 3-3 28, Justin Bergman 0-3 2-2 2, Nick Veneziale 1-3 0-0 2, Brian Carney 4-6 0-2 8, Steve Maynew 3-6 1-4 7. Totals: 20-45 6-14 51

MARS 43Chris Herold 3-5 3-4 11, Dan Colbert 0-4 0-0 0, Dave Petruska 1-3 0-0 3, D.J. Cannon 0-3 0-0 0, Steve Cress 9-14 1-2 19, VinnySmith 4-10 2-4 10, Ryan Nearhood 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: 17-40 6-10 43

Northgate 18 2 15 16—51Mars 7 16 14 6—433-point goals: Valeriano 4, Herold 2, Petruska

Tuesday: Montour at Mars