The Kiski Area boys basketball team had payback on its mind Friday night from a six-point loss to Section 2-5A rival Hampton on Dec. 20.

Mission accomplished.

The Cavaliers, ahead by six at halftime and nine at the end of three quarters, weathered a couple of Hampton second-half rally attempts to secure a 46-35 victory and maintain its share of first place in the section.

“It was payback for us, and we had this game circled after they got us at our place,” Kiski Area coach Corey Smith said.

The Cavaliers’ only loss in section so far was last month’s 50-44 setback to Hampton. Kiski Area improved to 6-1 in the section and 8-6 overall.

“The guys felt like they should’ve come in here (Friday) 6-0 in the section,” Smith said.

The victory was Kiski’s fifth in a row. Friday’s game was the first for the Cavaliers since beating Penn Hills, 68-53, on Jan. 14.

“It’s a nice win for the guys, but they have to forget about it because we have Indiana (Saturday),” Smith said. “We have to refocus and be ready to go.”

Kiski Area basketball hosts a doubleheader with Indiana on Saturday. The girls play at noon, and the boys go at 1:30 p.m.

Hampton fell to 5-4 in the section and 9-8 overall. The Talbots, who saw a six-game winning streak halted with an overtime loss to Penn Hills on Wednesday, visit Indiana on Tuesday.

“We’ll be back at it (Saturday) morning,” Hampton coach Joe Cangilla said.

“It was a physical week for us with Penn Hills on Wednesday. It will be a little bit lighter with some work in the weight room. Monday, we will game plan for Indiana. It now is a turning point for us. It was a tough week against some really good teams. We want to be in close games like that to build our experience.”

Kiski scored six of the first eight points of the third quarter to build its biggest lead of the game at 26-16. Carson Heinle scored all six points for the Cavaliers.

Jonas Cupps then responded for Hampton with a jumper and a pair of 3-pointers to trim the Kiski advantage to two.

But the Cavaliers responded and closed out the third on a 9-2 run. Aven Shirley drained a 3-pointer at the buzzer to put Kiski ahead 35-26.

Hampton opened the fourth with six straight points. Cupps, who finished with a game-best 12 points, sank a foul shot and a 3-pointer before Zack Danner scored on a layup to close the gap to 35-32.

Danner finished with nine points for the Talbots.

Kiski again turned away the Talbots, though. The Cavaliers helped themselves from the foul line, hitting nine of 10 free throws down the stretch.

“We had the lead in the second half and were able to do the right things to hold them off,” Smith said. “Hampton is a good basketball team, and we knew they wouldn’t go away.”

Smith said he appreciated the balanced scoring. Jacob Musselman led Kiski with 10 points, Amaree Gonzalez finished with nine and Colin Keller and Heinle tallied eight points apiece.

Cangilla said he liked the fight from his team to get back in the game in the second half.

“We turned up the pressure a little bit and made some shots in the third quarter,” he said.

“Jonas made some big shots. We did it again early in the fourth to cut it to three. But credit Kiski. They took a couple punches from us and punched right back. We just have to get better at putting it all together. We would have a good offensive run but then would have some defensive lapses. Against a really good team like (Kiski), you have to be solid for 32 minutes.”

As both teams worked to find their early offensive footing, Kiski Area delivered the first blow of the game by jumping out to a 10-3 lead after six minutes on two buckets and a free throw from Gonzalez, a 3-pointer from Keller and a layup off an offensive rebound from Heinle.

From there, it was a run from each team that punctuated the remainder of the first half.

Hampton rallied from its deficit with a 10-0 run spanning the latter stages of the first through the first three minutes of the second. Five points and three rebounds from Danner helped the Talbots rally to a 13-10 lead with 5:24 to go until the break.

But Kiski Area, after calling a timeout, was able to halt the Talbot’s momentum and closed out the half on a 10-1 run.

Andrew Zepeda came off the bench for the Cavaliers with just under four minutes on the clock and proceeded to drain a pair of 3-pointers. The second one gave the visitors back the lead at 16-14.

A pair of free throws from Keller and a layup from Musselman extended Kiski’s lead to 20-14 as the teams headed to their respective locker rooms.

“We couldn’t get down,” Smith said. “We called a timeout and regrouped. We just got back to what we do well. We stayed the course and kept grinding.”