Feb 27, 2018 4 min read

BALDWIN – As Mars’ standout Robby Carmody left the floor drained and to applause, it was the Trinity Hillers’ fans clapping, thankful that he was out of the game.

Fouling out with 1:59 remaining in regulation, the exhausted Carmody, who is still recovering from pneumonia, sat on the bench to hear the resounding overture at Baldwin High School.

It was a tough night, one that had him throwing up in the garbage can in the Mars’ locker room at halftime.

But the damage had already been done.

Carmody, bound for Notre Dame in the fall, scored 21 of the Fightin’ Planets 23 points in the first half and finished with a game-high 30 points as top-seeded Mars defeated Trinity, 56-39, in a WPIAL Class 5A semifinal game Tuesday night.

“You don’t get to see an ACC kid all that often,” said Trinity coach Tim Tessmer. “He is the real deal. He is able to control his body a lot. He is able to get into you. He takes away space on both sides of the floor and dictates a lot of different things. I think we did a decent job on him.”

Not decent enough for the Hillers, who still qualified for the PIAA tournament with their quarterfinal victory over McKeesport.

As the rest of Mars’ players struggled in the first half – they only made 1 of 15 field goals – Carmody went 6 of 13 to score all the Fightin’ Planets points but two. Andrew Recchia made a jumper that gave Mars an 11-9 lead with 1:51 left in the first quarter after trailing 7-0 to Trinty to begin the game.

“This is new to them,” said Mars coach Rob Carmody. “Fortunately for us, we had someone to lean on. He can barely talk. He is having a tough time breathing. What you saw in the first half was just guts. If I were a good parent, (both him and Mike Carmody, who also had pneumonia) wouldn’t have played. But the adrenaline kicks in and you get some ibuprofen in you and you’re good to go.”

The main struggles for Trinity (20-5) were on the offensive end, where the Hillers had a difficult time finding any consistency. After back-to-back layups from Jeff Ecker to take a 4-0 lead in the opening two minutes, Trinity, the No. 5 seed, couldn’t string a pair of field goals together without Mars’ scoring until midway through the fourth quarter.

“Our guys didn’t do enough offensively to make baskets,” Tessmer said. “The ball stuck a lot. We weren’t moving it from side to side. We got caught in a lot of one-man situations and you don’t make enough shots doing it that way.”

As the game persisted in the second half, and the Mars’ lead only grew larger with a Robby Carmody layup and Mike Carmody baseline three-pointer to extend the lead to 38-25 to end the third quarter, the Hillers frustrations got the best of them.

The Fightin’ Planets made 22 of their 30 free throws, 22 attempts coming in the fourth quarter alone.

“Our plan was good. We were moving the ball (early),” Tessmer said. “But as the game wore on, we got caught up in a lot of other stuff that doesn’t have to do with basketball.”

Unlike the first half, other Mars players helped Robby Carmody, who picked up his third foul with 3:43 left in the second quarter, in the scoring department.

Michael Carmody scored eight of his nine points in the third quarter, and Recchia hit a three-pointer to give the Fightin’ Planets their first double-digit lead of the game, 31-20.

“The second half was a completely different type of game,” the elder Carmody said. “They carried him. He was throwing up whatever was in his lungs at halftime.

“But at this point, you have to make teams make tough shots. Everybody, if you leave them open, are going to make shots. You cannot give up easy looks. You have to contest everything.”

Trinity didn’t find anything easy most of the night, as Joey Koroly led the Hillers with 10 points. Michael Koroly finished with eight points.

Mars advances to its first ever WPIAL title appearance Friday night to play Franklin Regional.