Last season was supposed to be the "rebuilding year" for the Woodland Hills girls' basketball team.

A 4-18 record was a result of graduating a senior class that made up nearly the entire starting lineup from the season before. This season was supposed to be more like 2007-08, when the Wolverines won 18 games..

And then injuries began to mount. One senior starter after the next was lost. After her team sustained a rash of various injuries -- everything from a neck and knee injury to surgery on a pinky -- seventh-year Woodland Hills coach Korie Morton-Rozier found herself rebuilding in the middle of the season.

Two freshmen were inserted into the lineup. She had more injured players on the bench than able-bodied players. Her rotation was drastically reduced, as was the offensive and defensive looks the Wolverines could give an opponent. They are now running two offenses down from six at the beginning of the season.

Yet through it all, Woodland Hills (6-11, 4-6 before Thursday night) managed to salvage its season with a win Monday night at Plum that was as improbable as it was necessary.

Just 10 days prior to the must-win situation at Plum, Woodland Hills had won back-to-back games for the first time all season with key section wins against Penn Hills and Gateway, but then, against the meat of the schedule, the season began to unravel.

The Wolverines fell at Fox Chapel and against Oakland Catholic and then a demoralizing 18-point loss at home to Plum, a team that figures to be in the battle for fourth place and the final WPIAL playoff berth in Section 2-AAAA.

That game was on a Saturday and there are no practices at Woodland Hills on Sunday. So without meeting again, Morton-Rozier's team headed over to Plum where it would have to find a way to turn an 18-point home loss into a road win.

The Wolverines did and they did it their way, with defense in a 27-26 game.

"I really don't know what the difference was," Morton-Rozier said of the second game. "We didn't even have a day to prepare. We just showed up. They gave it all they had. The girls knew it was a must win."

There is another must win for Woodland Hills this season if it hopes to get into the playoffs. The Wolverines were scheduled to play second-place McKeesport at home Thursday night, but their regular-season finale at Penn Hills next Thursday could be a "play-in game" of sorts.

Entering the season the goal was to make the playoffs. After injuries struck, the goal remained the same, but the team knew it would have to fight for fourth place in the section to get in.

"We are definitely upbeat," Morton-Rozier said. "Our goal was to make the playoffs and they are doing everything they can [to accomplish that].

"We weren't trying to shoot for fourth place coming into the season but now we just want to make it."

Before Thursday night, Woodland Hills was a half-game ahead of Plum in the section standings behind section co-leaders Oakland Catholic and Fox Chapel (both had 9-1 records) and third-place McKeesport.

The senior-laden opening night roster of Shannon Turner, JeQuaia Willis, Miquel Price-Wheeler and Amanda Garland and junior Alexis Coleman has been reduced to just Garland and Coleman. Freshmen Delrika Carey and Desiree Garland, Amanda's younger sister, and junior Teona Cash joined Coleman and Garland in the starting lineup.

"When you set up a play with a person and the next week they are not there anymore, it is kind of difficult," Amanda Garland said.

She leads the team with 8.7 points per game. The biggest loss has been in rebounding where Turner and Willis were the team's leading rebounders before sustaining injuries.

Now, Morton-Rozier has to produce some magic.

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