Planets hold off Mt. Lebo, 49-40
ADAMS TWP — The Mars girls basketball team used Monday's regular season finale against Mount Lebanon as a tune-up for the upcoming WPIAL Class AAA playoffs.
But Planets coach Dave Sylvester also wanted to play close to the vest.
"We're working on a few new things," he said. "But we didn't use any tonight because we don't want them to show up on tape before the playoffs."
The Planets did show enough to beat visiting Mount Lebanon, 49-40, with sophomore forward Lily Grenci leading all scorers with 22 points.
Grenci made all nine of her free throw attempts in the game, including 8-of-8 in the fourth quarter to stave off a Blue Devils' rally.
As a team, Mars (22-2) was 17-of-23 from the free throw line in the game for 74 percent.
"We've gotten much better in free throws since the beginning of the year," said Sylvester. "Most practices, every player is shooting about 50 free throws. It's something that we've really focused on."
That repetition paid off Monday, as 13 of Mars' 15 fourth-quarter points came from the line.
The Planets opened the final period with a 34-26 lead, but when Mount Lebanon's Jackie Babe sank a basket with 1:58 left to play, Mars' edge was cut to 40-36.
But the Blue Devils (16-8), who have qualified for the Quad A playoffs out of Section 4, would get no closer in the final seconds.
One area Sylvester is hoping to improve on in the playoffs is turnovers.
The Planets committed 21 turnovers Monday, including 12 in the second half.
"We need to take better care of the ball," said Sylvester. "We got into situations where we panicked. But (Mount Lebanon) wasn't able to capitalize on a lot of our turnovers."
Haley Geyer added 12 points to Mars' cause, including three 3-pointers in the second quarter.
Jackie Babe led Mount Lebanon with 14 points.
The Planets will learn their opponent in the first round of the district playoffs at tonight's pairings meeting.
MOUNT LEBANON 40Jackie Babe 5 4-5 14, Jackie Molinda 0 2-2 2, Emily Miller 4 1-1 9, Jessica Babe 1 0-0 2, Chelsea Apke 2 0-0 4, Heather Dean 1 3-4 5, Megan Quirk 1 0-0 2, Lauren Arbogast 1 0-0 2, Kathy Briercheck 0 0-0 0, Angelina Liberi 0 0-0 0.
Totals: 15 10-12 40.
MARS 49Megan Gibson 1 1-4 3, Cara Hudac 1 0-0 2, Haley Geyer 4 1-2 12, Karly Takach 1 3-4 5, Lily Grenci 6 9-9 22, Maggie Bulman 1 3-4 5.
Totals: 14 17-23 49.
Mount Lebanon 8 8 10 14—40Mars 8 16 10 15—493-point goals: Mars 4 (Geyer 3, Grenci)
JV: Mount Lebanon 37-26 (Mars-T. Gressang 10 points)
