Tyrone lost star senior Alayna Woomer to injury early this season but rebounded to finish the regular season 16-6 and earn the No. 2 seed in the playoffs.

The Lady Eagles responded again Wednesday by fighting back and eventually taking a 10-point lead with just more than a minute to play in the third quarter, but a Forest Hills team that has been playing as well as anyone in the district over the past month was able to rally in the fourth quarter and come away with a 59-52 win.

“Take a star player off anyone’s team and you’ll see how resilient they are,” Tyrone coach Mike Whitling said. “That’s the brilliance of what these ladies did this year. You take a star out of lineup, and they had to regroup and figure out how to play. It’s not something you have a coach’s manual for. You just have to trust your players and work through it with them. That’s what made this team so amazing.”

Leading 41-31 with 1:10 to play in the third quarter, Forest Hills got a transition layup from Addi Lashinsky and two free throws and another layup from Morgan Gdula — who scored a game-high 23 points — that cut the lead to just four going into the final quarter.

“We were trying to get the last shot at the end of the third quarter,” Whitling said. “We took a quick shot, and they went down and scored. We had an inbound play, and they got it and went down and scored again. We went from up by eight trying to take the last shot to four up.”

Eva Myers opened the fourth quarter with a 3-pointer, and Aivah Maul’s layup with 6:38 to play gave Forest Hills its first lead since halftime.

“We had a timeout and said, look, we have to make some shots,” Forest Hills coach Carol Cecere said. “In the playoffs, there are differences in the way games are played. We had to learn how to adapt to this game. Rims that weren’t favorable to us, shots that weren’t going down and foul trouble. We adapted to those and jumped into a press, which we haven’t done much of in the last couple games, and I think that’s what helped us.”

The press was difficult for Tyrone to deal with in part because three solid ballhandlers — Claire Lehman, Lola Woomer and Brielle Parker — were all in foul trouble. Eventually, all three fouled out.

“We had three starters sitting on the bench,” Whitling said. “It impacted things, but at the same time, they put a press on and we did not handle it as well as we needed to. That flipped the game to us leading by 10 to them leading by 14.”

Before Tyrone’s offense snapped out of its funk, Forest Hills had completed a 25-1 run.

The Lady Rangers’ win sets up a rematch of last year’s District 6 title game, won by Forest Hills over Penn Cambria. The Lady Panthers won the other semifinal, 56-40, over Westmont Hilltop. Penn Cambria won the regular-season game this season, 67-43. At one point this season, the Lady Rangers were just 7-6.

“This team has been through a journey where we struggled, lost an assistant coach and our motto has been team and then together,” Cecere said. “There were times I told them to rely on their teammates, and you saw some really pretty passes. Sometimes we tried to shoulder it ourselves, but when we relied on each other, this group got close together and that’s what helped them keep their composure tonight.”

Bella Carpenter, who had eight key points off the bench including four during the big run, developed during the time Forest Hills was struggling.

“Eva Myers was out with a broken wrist,” Cecere said. “She hurt it in the first game, played the second game and then fell on it in the third game and it was broken. Eight weeks went by without her, and she’s a big presence on the inside. Bella Carpenter came in, gained a ton of experience, and I think that helped her in today’s game. When Eva came back, we just started to play basketball together and let the chips fall where they go.”

The loss ended the high school careers of seniors Rylan Crowell, Lehman, Elise Volders and Alayna Woomer.

“They were everything for this team,” Whitling said. “They were supportive of younger players. They were positive in practice and encouraging. I can’t ask for a better group of seniors. I just wish we could have gotten them a better result tonight.”

Lehman had 14 points in her final game before fouling out in the final minute, Crowell scored eight and Volders had four.

“We had a lot of ups and downs this season,” Crowell said. “With Alayna having her injury, it meant a lot to us to stick together and work as a team. We wanted to keep the underclassmen under our wing, which is a big part of what we talked about throughout the season. We held it together this year as a senior class and tried to be role models for the underclassmen.”

Despite her injury, Alayna Woomer remained on the bench with the team and helped with the development of her cousin, Lola, who led the Lady Eagles with 17 points before fouling out.

“Laney was a really big part of why we had the record we did,” Crowell said. “I think at the beginning of the year, it took a lot of us to realize how to play without Alayna, but at the end of the day, we played for Alayna.”

Lola Woomer is only a sophomore, and freshman Raylee Woodring flashed potential with seven points Wednesday.

“I think there’s a couple younger players coming up that are going to help the situation, and maybe some players that didn’t play this year that will come back also that could help,” Whitling said. “We have to get some kids out for the team.”

FOREST HILLS (59): Gdula 9 4-9 23, Maul 4 6-6 14, Myers 2 2-4 7, Pcola 0 0-0 0, Lashinsky 2 1-2 5, Carpenter 2 4-6 8, Baumgartner 0 0-0 0, Faith 1 0-0 2. Totals — 20 17-27 59.

TYRONE (52): L. Woomer 6 4-6 17, Crowell 2 4-4 8, Parker 1 0-2 2, Lehman 6 0-2 14, Volders 2 0-0 4, Woodring 2 2-4 7, Davis 0 0-0 0, Naylor 0 0-0 0. Totals — 19 10-18 52.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Forest Hills 14 11 12 22 — 59

Tyrone 10 14 17 11 — 52

3-point goals: Forest Hills 2 (Gdula, Myers); Tyrone 4 (Lehman 2, Woodring, L. Woomer).

Records: Forest Hills (16-7); Tyrone (16-7).

Officials: Steve Schaff, Neil Cobaugh, Doug Stratton.