Michael Carmody’s double-double carries No. 1 Mars past Shaler in Class 5A quarterfinals

By: Jerin Steele
Friday, February 22, 2019 | 11:37 PM

Michael Carmody’s future in college athletics is likely as an offensive lineman in football, but Friday night he showed he can do plenty of damage on a basketball court with his 6-foot-7, 270-pound frame.

Carmody had 23 points and 30 rebounds to lead top-seeded Mars to a 74-52 victory over No. 8 Shaler (16-8) in the WPIAL Class 5A boys basketball quarterfinals at North Allegheny.

The Fightin’ Planets (22-1) secured a spot in the PIAA playoffs and advanced to play No. 5 Chartiers Valley in the semifinals Tuesday at a site and time to be announced. Shaler can qualify for the PIAA tournament if Mars reaches the WPIAL final or Chartiers Valley wins the WPIAL title.

Carmody, a junior, gave a large Shaler student section dressed in all black a taste of what kind of night he was going to have just a couple minutes in when he drilled a 3-pointer from the corner. He turned around and held up three fingers to them as he ran back down the court.

“It was awesome to come out and get this win tonight,” Carmody said. “Their student section was talking a lot of smack on Twitter and to come out and kind of shush them up early was good. I feed off that. I love having a crowd that I can quiet.”

That wasn’t the only time Carmody was fired up. Four separate times he snatched a rebound and banked in a layup, while drawing a foul. Each time he raised his hands in the air and let out a yell. Carmody said he’s generally petty mild mannered off the court, but is emotional on it, a trait he said he shares with his brother, Robby, who’s now at Notre Dame.

“There’s something in me that when step on the field or on a court. I just flip a switch and I am a different person,” Carmody said. “It was the same thing that Robby does, but just maybe on a different scale. When Robby gets on the court he’s a bad man. He doesn’t take anything from anybody else. If you meet him off the court he’s just like ‘Hi I’m Robby Carmody.’ … He’s just a nice guy. When I get on the court I just love to compete.”

Mars led 11-2 at the end of the first quarter and led by as many as 12 in the second, but Shaler had an 8-0 run late in the second that cut the lead to 24-20, before Mars had a quick 4-0 response in the final minute to take a 28-20 lead into halftime.

“In the second quarter we turned it right back into a game,” Shaler coach Rob Neiderberger said. “I felt good going into halftime about where the game was going. I felt like they looked tired, so we felt like if we could continue to speed things up we could get them. But we came out kind of cold in the third quarter. We had a couple dry spells and we really didn’t have an answer for Carmody. He’s just a man-child on boards. You can’t teach that. He just crushed us on the boards.”

Carmody had back-to-back possessions where he had a putback on a rebound early in the third quarter that put Mars up by 12, and Shaler never got within 10 points the rest of the game.

Mars coach and Michael’s father Rob Carmody half-jokingly let Michael know after the game that his 1-for-4 performance at the free throw line wasn’t good enough, but other than that was proud and happy with his performance.

“Mike has just blossomed. … I mean it’s not easy being a kid in your brother’s shadow like he was with Robby,” Coach Carmody said. “When he was growing up, Robby was always the gifted, athletic kid and then there was Michael his little brother. Over the last couple years from a 5-foot-10 kid in eighth grade to what he is now, his confidence level as a player and as young man … he’s come out of his shadow. He’s proud of his brother and his brother is proud of him, but it’s good to be your own person.”

Andrew Recchia had 19 points, Khori Fusco scored 16 and Brandon Caruso added 10 for Mars.

“We’re not here without Andrew, Khori, Brandon, Joey (Craska), Mihali (Sfanos) and everyone on this team doing their job and battling,” Coach Carmody said. “Andrew will be the first to tell you it wasn’t his best game, Khori not his best and Brandon not his best, but we still won by 22. That’s a pretty darn good thing, but if you want to continue to advance, you’ve got to continue getting better.”

Justin Desabato led Shaler with 16 points, Mekhi Reynolds scored 14 and Brennan Fugh added 10 points.

Tags: Mars, Shaler