Kiski Area girls happy to control their playoff fate

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 8:54 PM

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The Kiski Area girls basketball team has had its ups and downs throughout the season, but with two Section 2-5A games left Thursday and Friday, it controls its own destiny for a spot in the WPIAL playoffs.

Senior Ali Pencak welcomes the position in which the Cavaliers find themselves.

“It’s nice to be able to control our own fate and not need someone else to win or lose,” Pencak said. “We are really eager to play these games. We have a lot of confidence in what we can do. We want to take care of it (Thursday) against McKeesport, but we have Friday (against Latrobe) if we need it. We came into practice (Wednesday) ready to work hard and do the things we need to do to be ready.”

Cavaliers coach Tom Brush said it’s always good to be playing meaningful basketball in the final few games of the regular season.

“It would obviously be great if we had already clinched, but the girls have given themselves a chance to be in the mix, and I am excited for them to have that,” he said.

“I have been with teams that were already eliminated and went into the last week of the season with nothing to play for, and that is no fun. We have a lot to play for, and that gives us a lot of energy.”

Kiski Area suffered a 56-40 loss to section leader Penn-Trafford (16-4, 11-0) on Tuesday. Pencak said the team understood what it needed to work on coming out of that game and also what positives it was able to take from the stretches of good play against the Warriors.

The Cavaliers are 10-9 overall and 4-6 (fourth place) in the section as they host McKeesport on Thursday. The Tigers, 3-8 in the section, need to win to stay alive and then hope Kiski Area loses to Latrobe (10-6, 7-4) on Friday.

“It comes down to being prepared to go get what we want, and that is wins Thursday and Friday,” said senior Gianna DeVito, the team’s leading scorer.

DeVito said the team understands there were fixable things in losses to McKeesport (53-35) and Latrobe (59-51) in the first half of the section schedule.

“It is about playing four quarters of good basketball we know we can play,” DeVito said. “We’ve been pretty competitive. Win or lose, we are looking to get to practice and work to build off of those games. The coaches really help us stay focused and work on exactly what we need to do to get better.”

Kiski Area started the season with five wins over its first seven games. The eighth game, a home matchup with Latrobe, started very well for the Cavaliers, who built a seven-point lead at the end of the first quarter and were up eight at halftime.

But the Wildcats stormed back with a 24-11 advantage in the third quarter to lead by five at the end of three before holding off Kiski in the fourth.

“That third quarter, they pressed us, and we kind of fell apart,” said Brush, who saw DeVito score 20 and junior Jada Blanciak and sophomore Arianna Bell each tally 10 points in the loss.

“We started to lose our composure a little bit, and things started to unravel. I give the girls a ton of credit for continuing to fight in that fourth quarter to make it a back-and-forth game. That was a positive aspect.”

Said Pencak: “We know we can get it done against (Latrobe). We just have to focus on playing a complete game.”

Brush said the first McKeesport game came down to not being able to shoot the ball for a good percentage.

“I think it was something like 25 percent,” he said. “It was just one of those games offensively. Each quarter, it was like five or six points, and it added up to the end. McKeesport shot pretty well.”

Kiski Area shot well and also played solid defense in last Friday’s key 63-31 rout of West Mifflin. The Cavaliers were off and running with a 21-4 first quarter, and when it was all said and done, DeVito and Blanciak each led the way with 15 points. Junior Olivia Strellec drained a trio of 3-pointers en route to 11 points.

Kiski Area turned the ball over 10 times in the first quarter Tuesday against Penn-Trafford and fell behind 18-8.

The Cavaliers responded in the second quarter, outscoring the Warriors, 15-9, to close the gap to four at the break.

But the Kiski Area offense struggled in the third as Penn-Trafford took the quarter, 17-3.

“The third quarter, we just couldn’t score. It was frustrating,” Brush said. “We fought hard in the fourth quarter, but it was those two quarters that hurt us. Penn-Trafford is a really good team, and they shot lights out. We talk all the time about being able to play a full four quarters and staying consistent. In the second and fourth quarters, we were able to show what we can do when we are at our best.”

Kiski Area trailed by two points in the fourth quarter of the home matchup with Penn-Trafford before falling 48-41.

Pencak said the Cavaliers have become more and more confident in their overall team game from the start of the season.

“A lot of the younger and less-experienced girls coming into the season have really stepped up and gotten more comfortable in their roles with the team,” she said.

“I think that has translated into better communication on the court. We are working well together as a team. We hope to turn that into some more wins.”

Michael Love is a TribLive reporter covering sports in the Alle-Kiski Valley and the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh. A Clearfield native and a graduate of Westminster (Pa.), he joined the Trib in 2002 after spending five years at the Clearfield Progress. He can be reached at mlove@triblive.com.

Tags: Kiski Area