The Deer Lakes boys basketball team got revenge on Friday night for a previous loss to Freeport in section play. Read my story in the Tribune Review.

The game featured a nearly four-minute scoreless stretch to start the game. Things heated up in in the second half.

PENN HILLS - Milani Oliver shot down the idea that scoring 1,000 points was a lifelong goal. The Penn Hills senior was pushed in that direction once she demonstrated she had the ability to reach for the stars. 

"As a freshman, it actually wasn't the goal," Oliver said. "But when I was like a sophomore and junior, (coach) Robert (Cash) was telling me to step it up and I could get it if I work hard enough to do it. He was pushing me the whole time I got it."

Oliver hit that mark early during a 48-12 Section 1-5A contest with Gateway Tuesday night at home. Oliver, who finished with 11 points to push her career total to 1,007 points, was happy to part of the lineage of Penn Hills athletes to reach the mark. Hannah Pugliese, who now plays at Slippery Rock University, was the last Indians' player to reach 1,000 points in 2014.

Before that, Penn Hills assistant coach Desiree Oliver was the last player in the program to take her scoring total that high.

"It feels great," Milani said. "It actually feels great being apart of that."

Putting aside her personal accomplishment, Milani knew that the Indians to pick up an emphatic win against Gateway. Penn Hills has lost five consecutive games entering the matchup and the Gators have wallowed at the bottom of the section all season.

"I feel like this win right here, it sets up for some of the goals we set before the season started," Milani said. "I feel like this sets us up to be good. I think our biggest competition is going to be Fox Chapel and Plum. Winning this game gave us our confidence back."

Milani said this Penn Hills has a strong support system in place alongside her. She is hoping to try and lead the Indians back to the WPIAL Class 5A playoffs during her senior season. She isn't sure what will be next for her after high school.

"For college, it's still undecided," Milani said. "I was getting a lot of emails and getting a lot of looks, but I don't know yet."

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be sent to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo

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The news out of Oakmont is that there will be lights added to Riverside Park before the start of next football season. That means the Raiders will now join every other public school in the WPIAL in playing their home football games on Friday nights. After Western Beaver got lights before the start of the 2025 season, Riverview was the last public school in the Pittsburgh area to play on Saturday afternoons.

It's a disappointing change, but one that the parents wanted badly, so it was destined to happen. The Raiders' home atmosphere, being close to the Allegheny River and the Oakmont Bakery, provided a festive environment.

The only school still playing all of its home games on Saturdays is Summit Academy, a school for at-risk youth in Butler County. It doesn't guarantee that all games will be on Fridays in the Pittsburgh area. Due to a lack of officials, many districts around the state have been forced to move games to Thursday or Saturday nights.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo

The opener at The Challenge at Allderdice required overtime to find a winner. Penn Hills did just enough in overtime to pull out a 58-57 win over the defending PIAA and WPIAL Class 1A champions.

I wrote a story for SBLive, which the link will be posted here. The Bulldogs were without a few key players, but showed plenty of fight.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo

Penn Hills' Milani Oliver is inching closer to the 1,000-point plateau for her career. Oliver scored six points against McKeesport Friday night during a 48-32 loss. She now has 996 points in her career.

Oliver would be the third Penn Hills player since 2016 to hit 1,000 points. Hannah Pugliese, who now plays at Slippery Rock University, hit the mark in 2024. Desiree Oliver, who has served as an assistant coach for the Indians, also topped 1,000 points back in 2016. Desiree went on to play for UMass.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo

PLUM - Chris Giles' biggest supporters were sound asleep when he made his cameo appearance on Sunday Night Football But the Penn Hills boys basketball coach found plenty of people were able to see him coach during the broadcast of the Steelers and Ravens game last Sunday.

The Sunday Night Football crew had stopped by to shoot footage of the Central Catholic-Penn Hills game on Jan. 2 at Penn Hills High School. 

"It was great," Giles said. "I wish my kids would've seen it, but they were in bed. It was great, my mom was able to see it and so were some relatives and family members. The best part about it is that when I went to work and some of my students said 'Mr. Giles, I saw you on TV.' So that's exciting."

The Vikings won the non-conference game 42-31. Typically Sunday Night Football will go to a high school game every week, but since the PIAA football season was over, they made the trip to Penn Hills again.

The Indians, who beat Plum 67-39 Tuesday night on the road, have won six of their past seven games. Penn Hills is 6-5 overall and 4-1 in Section 1-5A play.

"Kudos to those guys for coming out and supporting," Giles said. "Central's a really good team and it was two really good historical programs in basketball and football competing."

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

The Plum girls basketball team earned an important win at home on Monday. Read my story about it in the Tribune Review and Valley News Dispatch.

The Mustangs were able to gain an important win to try and emerge from the pack in Section 1-5A.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

Montrell Johnson was fortunate to have plenty of people in his corner. Johnson, a Highlands graduate, struggled with homelessness during his time in high school. 

After he committed to Saint Francis (Pa.) to play football during his senior year, the school announced it was dropping from the Division I Football Championship Subdivision level to Division III. Johnson, who played wide receiver for the Golden Rams and graduated in 2025, chose to go a different way and went back to work looking for a new school. Johnson spent time living with a high school teammate and his family while he attended community college.

Johnson announced this week he will play at Slippery Rock University. The Rock had a rare down season last year, finishing 6-5. SRU reached the Division II national semifinals in 2024 and made the playoffs every season from 2018 to 2024, with the lone exception coming during the COVID-19 year in 2020 where no season was played.

"I've chosen SRU because of their interest level in me as a student athlete," Johnson said. "Despite the year I've had with finding a home and not playing a snap of football since our loss to Imani Christian in the second round of the playoffs (in 2024) their coaching staff still has faith me in being a game-changing football player."

Johnson said that he lived with four or five different families while he was in high school. Over the past year, Johnson stayed sharp by working out with Tre Tipton. Tipton, a former Apollo-Ridge standout, played collegiately at Pitt. In the classroom, Johnson maintained a 3.0 GPA while attending community college.

"I'm most excited for getting the opportunity to play football again," Johnson said. "Most of us athletes don't realize that after high school another chance to put on the pads isn't guaranteed. You have to work for every single second of it. If you aren't willing to work for it, there are thousands of other athletes to replace you. You'll be sitting on the couch, regretting not putting in the work to earn a roster spot somewhere."

Josh Rizzo the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be sent to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo.

​There was plenty of sourness after the Pitt football team lost to East Carolina in the GoBowling Military Bowl. How the Panthers lost should reflect on coach Pat Narduzzi. The Pirates were missing a significant amount of players and compete in a less prestigious league, the American Conference. 

Pitt were 13.5-point betting favorites. But the Panthers' offense struggled and came up short in a 23-17 defeat to end the year 8-5. While it's not great that Pitt lost to a Group of 6 team for the second consecutive year in a bowl game, what is a fair expectation for the program?

​With Western Pennsylvania's waning population providing fewer top-end prospects in the pipeline and the challenges of luring players from Florida and Texas to Western Pennsylvania, finishing 8-5 most seasons seems appropriate.

Maybe every couple of years, Pitt could hit double-digit victories like it did with the Kenny Pickett-led team in 2021. The Panthers finished with 11 wins for the first time since 1981 and won their first ACC championship. But that year is more likely to be the outlier. 

It's hard to tell how much Pitt will be able to raise financially in the current environment of NCAA football. Any deep dives on finding some numbers is mostly fruitless, as college football lacks transparency about spending with how quickly things are changing. Pittsburgh Public Source's reporting indicated it wasn't going to be easy for the university to determine that number.

Whether Narduzzi would be the guy who should be at the helm of such a program would be a good question. But given what he has available to him, Narduzzi has done a good job at Pitt. Not that things have been perfect. 

Narduzzi's had his fair share of stumbles, and his bravado can be a little tiring, but he has stabilized the program. Since Narduzzi took over, Pitt is 80-61 and 52-39 in conference. 

On the field, Narduzzi's teams have produced memorable moments. The 2022 Sun Bowl win over UCLA is one that stands out.

UCLA took the lead, 35-34, on Pitt with 34 seconds remaining after an 8-yard touchdown run by T.J. Harden. Pitt responded by going right down the field and winning on a 47-yard field goal by Ben Sauls. That allowed Pitt to finish the season with a 9-4 record and ranked in the top 25.

The issue for Narduzzi is that those two seasons show what is possible when they get a special group together. Other Pitt teams, like the Panthers' 2016 team that upended No. 2 Clemson 43-42 on the road, flashed potential but wasted too many opportunities. 

Since that win in El Paso, Pitt's stumbles have been amplified by late-season collapses. After falling to 3-9 in 2023, Pitt started last season with seven straight wins and climbed to 18th in the Associated Press poll. Any talk of an ACC title -- or an appearance in the College Football Playoff -- was quickly extinguished with a loss to Virginia that kicked off a string of six straight losses.

The Panthers showed they were resilient this season, shaking off a 2-2 start with a five game-winning streak. When Pitt had a chance to flex its muscles in front of a national audience against Notre Dame, the Panthers wilted, losing 37-15. While Pitt bounced back with an upset road win over Georgia Tech, the Panthers followed it with a crushing loss to Miami and the ECU debacle.

This was the third season where Narduzzi led a team into a bowl game with an opportunity to reach nine wins. In 2015 and 2016, Pitt finished 8-5 after losing to Navy and Northwestern in the Military and Pinstripe Bowls, respectively. The Panthers fell flat this season.

Die hards will want more, as they should. But with how things are changing financially in college football, it seems like Narduzzi has Pitt pressed firmly against its ceiling.

Josh Rizzo is the editor and publisher of Pittsburgh Preps and Colleges. Story ideas can be submitted to [email protected] or on X @J_oshRizzo