Senior grabs starting spot, makes impact in paint for Highlands girls

By: Michael Love
Wednesday, February 15, 2023 | 9:30 PM

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Ava Nitowski scored 14 points and added 11 rebounds Jan. 4 as the Highlands girls basketball team topped rival Freeport by 11.

The double-double was a memorable performance and a strong start to the new year for the 6-foot senior first-year starter, who helped the Golden Rams win 14 games in the regular season, tie Knoch for second place in Section 1-4A and earn the No. 6 seed for the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs.

Nitowski has made the most of her opportunity in the starting lineup for Highlands, and her inside presence and athleticism have made opposing offenses wary of how she can alter the course of a game.

“I came in to the season with a lot goals for myself and for the team,” Nitowski said. “It is my last (high school) season. I want to be the type of player my teammates and coaches can trust.”

Nitowski hopes she can be trusted to help lead the Golden Rams to a first-round home victory against No. 11 Laurel Highlands (11-11) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Nitowski settled into a JV role with some varsity minutes as a freshman, and she continued mostly in that role as a sophomore. Last season, she was a part of a Golden Rams team that won 19 games and advanced to the WPIAL quarterfinals.

She said that while a strong nucleus of starters was back in the form of junior quartet of Katelyn Myers, Shelby Wojcik, Jocelyn Bielak and Kalleigh Nerone, Nitowski knew that with a new head coach in Shawn Bennis and a new system, there would be opportunities to snag a starting spot in her final varsity season.

“That definitely pushed me harder in the offseason through summer league games and workouts and in the preseason practices,” Nitowski said. “I knew what I needed to work on. Nothing was going to be given to me. I really wanted to become a regular starter. With the others who came back, we knew we could win a lot of games and get back to the playoffs.

“The fresh start with the new system really impacted me in a positive way. I know, even now, that I have things in my game I can still work on.”

Nitowski said she could see the improvement in her game at both ends of the court, but she didn’t want to rest on her laurels as the season progressed.

She hit for 15 points, complementing 22 from Myers, in a Dec. 12 loss to Class 5A Montour, and she tallied 10 points as part of a four-player double-figure scoring effort in a 52-41 victory over Knoch a week later.

“We had some returning starters, but spots were up for grabs, and I wanted to see all of the girls battle and show me their best as we made some decisions early on,” Bennis said. “We talked to Ava, specifically with her being a senior, about what she needed to do with her height from the forward position. We go off to the side in practice and work on big-girl moves and things of that nature to help her see the game faster from her perspective.

“She is very coachable and does whatever you ask of her. That is a big reason she is having the success she is having this year.”

Nitowski said she recalls a lot of tough battles in the paint against 5-11 Freeport forward Brooke Kmetz and 6-1 Greensburg Salem forward Kaitlyn Mankins.

“Those matchups were really good for me because they challenged me to up my game,” she said. “Same with Montour back in December.”

Nitowski said the 54-52 win at Greensburg-Salem as part of a six-game win streak to start 2023 really brought the team even closer together.

“That game was big for us as we had to dig deep for that win,” Nitowski said. “Having good competition in section and out of section really got us ready for the playoffs. Knoch, Greensburg-Salem, North Catholic and Freeport were teams who pushed us to be better. It was fun to go up against a team like Upper St. Clair (Class 6A, 19-2) and challenge ourselves even though we took a loss against them.”

The loss to USC was Highlands’ last in the regular season. It closed out section play with four wins, capping the regular season with an 84-42 victory over Valley last week.

Myers hit seven 3-pointers and finished with 25 points. Nerone and Bielak added 17 points apiece. Eleven players scored in the game.

It was the first time a Highlands girls team reached 80 or more points in a game since 2007 when it scored an 80-47 home win over Valley.

“It is always exciting to see what we can do on offense,” Nitowski said. “It’s not just one person in the lineup. I think we are pretty tough to guard.”

Highlands was able to test itself in a scrimmage Wednesday against Aquinas Academy, the No. 3 seed in Class A, and Avonworth, the No. 4 seed in Class 3A.

“It was nice to see two different styles,” Bennis said. “Avonworth plays a 2-3 matchup, and it is similar to what we’re going to see in the first round with Laurel Highlands. We played well, but like I told the girls, it was us more or less trying to clean up some things execution-wise and also working on communicating better and running our stuff with consistency and precision.”

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.

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