ADAMS TWP — New season, new faces, new roles. But it’s still Mars.

The Planets enjoyed a hot-shooting first half, scored in transition off turnovers and played stellar defense in defeating Knoch, 66-32, Tuesday night in Mars’ boys basketball home opener.

Mars (4-0) has won its last three games by the average margin of 31 points despite returning only one starter — senior Tasso Sfanos — from last season.

“I think that speaks well for our system,” Mars coach Rob Carmody said. “The four juniors on our team didn’t start playing basketball until eighth grade. They’ve stuck with it and it’s paying off for them.”

Two of those juniors — 6-foot-6 Remi Black and 6-6 Ryan Ceh — are in the starting lineup. Ceh began began the game with a dunk and wound leading a balanced scoring attack with 12 points.

“Ryan is one of our best outside shooters on top of his inside game,” Carmody said. “We can shoot the basketball.”

The Planets sank 14 treys jn a 31-point win over Plum last week. They struck for nine against Knoch, including seven in the first half while shooting 66% (20 of 30) from the field overall in the first two quarters.

The result was a 48-17 halftime lead that invoked the mercy clock in the second half.

“Their physicality really bothered us,” Knoch coach Alan Bauman said. “We were losing guys on the back-side and they were taking the ball away from us. Once a team as good as that one gets into a shooting groove ... This is what can happen.”

Tuesday marked the Planets’ home opener.

“This was the first experience for most of these guys, the lights being dimmed and hearing their names called (as starting lineups were introduced),” Carmody said. “They were amped up. We always play aggressive defense ... I’d tather see our players expend that extra energy on the defensive side.”

Knoch (0-4) had 13 turnovers in the contest. Mars’ starting lineup turned the ball over only once through three quarters before sitting the bench for the fourth.

After a Derek Lang trey pulled Knoch within 9-6 four minutes into the game, Mars went on a 34-7 run, capped by a Sfanos trey with 1:30 left in the half, for a 40-13 lead. That trey also polished off a 16-0 Mars run.

“You could see their strategy was to not let Tasso score, so he probably had about 12 assists tonight,” Carmody said.

Sfanos scored 10 points and had had eight assists to go swith three rebounds and three steals.

“Everybody’s doing a nice job right now,” Sfanos said. “As players settle into their roles, I think we can play even better. Players at Mars do a good job of watching the guys playing before them and learn from them.

“The system here just works.”

Black had 10 points and eight rebounds for the Planets, who enjoyed a 32-20 edge on the boards. Ceh had six rebounds and Brady Jordan — the leading scorer in the JV game — came off the bench to sink three treys.

Knoch (0-5) had lost its three most recent games by the combined total of 14 points.

“We had been steadily progressing until tonight,” Bauman said. We’re going to flush this one, forget about it, and get back to the basics and playing basketball like we know we can.“

Lang and Jackson Pacek led the Knights with six points each. Zane Pacek had five rebounds.

KNOCH 32

Jackson Bauman 1-9 2-5 4, Derek Lang 2-6 0-0 6, Gasparo Porco 1-1 0-0 2, Jay Allen 0-1 0-0 0, Teagan Finucan 1-8 1-2 4, Kaden Spencer 2-4 0-0 4, Zarian Finucan 0-0 2-3 2, Zane Pacek 0-1 0-0 0, Jackson Pacek 3-4 0-0 6, Vinnie Defilice 1-1 0-0 3, Dalton Schrecengost 0-0 1-2 1. Totals: 11-35 6-12 32.

MARS 66

Austin Campbell 4-7 0-0 8, Tassa Sfanos 4-9 1-2 10, Remi Black 5-7 0-0 10, Ryan Ceh 5-12 0-0 12, Deven Koch 3-6 0-0 8, Ian Zukowski 2-4 0-0 5, Brady Jordan 3-4 0-0 9, Andrew Cashdollar 0-1 0-0 0, Drew Navetta 1-3 0-0 2, Ben Detisch 0-1 0-0 0, Elias Grenier 1-1 0-0 2, Will Wilson 0-2 0-0 0, Blake Yates 1-1 0-0 2. Totals: 28-57 1-2 66.

Knoch 10 7 7 8 — 32

Mars 22 26 13 5 — 66

3-point goals: Knoch 4 (Lang 2, T.Finucan, Deflice), Mars 9 (Sfanos, Ceh 2, Koch 2, Zukowski, Jordan 3)

JV: Mars, 65-24 (K: Vinnie Defilice13, M: Brady Jordan 18)

Thursday: Valley at Knoch, Mars at Kiski Area