Forest Hills girls overcome slow start to defeat Westmont Hilltop

Feb. 26—SIDMAN — The undefeated Forest Hills girls' basketball team shook off a slow start and broke open a close contest with a huge third quarter to punch their ticket to a berth in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference championship game with a 44-27 semifinal victory over visiting Westmont Hilltop on Thursday night.

The top-seeded Rangers (15-0) held a slim 15-11 lead in the opening minute of the third quarter, but Forest Hills proceeded to turn it up at both ends of the floor with a run of 15 unanswered points to take control of the game and earn the right to face Bishop McCort for the LHAC crown on Saturday at Central Cambria High School.

"Our defense looked good all game, but it took us a while to settle down and get into our offense," said Rangers coach Carol Cecere. "We started out rushing shots and turning the ball over."

Forest Hills shot just 1-for-6 from the field and had six turnovers in the first quarter, but the Rangers had just five more turnovers the rest of the game.

"Once we started taking care of the ball we were able to generate some offense," Cecere said.

The Rangers were originally scheduled to face Cambria Heights in the LHAC semifinals, but the Highlanders opted out of the game Thursday morning due to COVID-19 contact tracing. That brought the Hilltoppers (7-7) into the contest on short notice.

"Our defense played well but we couldn't hit a shot and weren't taking care of the ball," Westmont Hilltop first-year coach Brittany Eisenhuth said.

The Hilltoppers held the Rangers scoreless for nearly four minutes to start the game and took a 3-0 lead on a foul shot and bucket by Lauren Lavis. Forest Hills subsequently tied it on a Taylor Burda three-pointer and took a 7-5 lead on a pair of Lexi Koeck free throws before Westmont Hilltop's Beth Buettner hit two free throws in the final minute of the opening quarter to once again knot the game heading into the second.

Forest Hills' defense then held the Hilltoppers scoreless for nearly the entire second quarter, and the Rangers used that stretch to open up an eight-point lead. Paige Debias hit back-to-back shots to put Forest Hills up 15-7 before Olivia Berg's buzzer-beating layup pulled the Hilltoppers within 15-9 at the break.

Lavis' driving layup cut the Ranger lead to four at the 6:50 mark of the third, but that was as close as it would get. Five different Rangers contributed points during the subsequent 15-0 run that was fueled by six Westmont Hilltop turnovers and capped off by Maddie Cecere's 3-pointer that made it 30-11 with 1:10 left in the period.

"A lot of different people stepped up at different times," said Coach Cecere.

Consecutive baskets by Grace Gardill pulled Westmont Hilltop within 14 heading into the fourth, but the Rangers outscored the Hilltoppers 7-1 to open the final quarter and went up 37-17 on Remi Smith's layup at the 4:01 mark to effectively seal the outcome.

Gardill finished with a game-high 14 points for the Hilltoppers, while Lavis tallied seven points with a team-leading 13 rebounds and three blocks.

Debias paced the Rangers with 12 points, while Jordyn Smith added eight points.

Madeline Cecere provided eight rebounds and six assists.

"We're a young team, and this playoff-type game is a good learning experience," said Eisenhuth, whose squad will await their seeding and opponent in the upcoming District 6 Class 3A playoffs.

"We're excited to be in the championship game," Cecere said. "We're going to have to come out ready to play against a very good team on Saturday."

Koeck and Remingtyn Smith each netted four steals for Forest Hills.