T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY SHADYSIDE SOPHOMORE Tory Hendershot reacts after cutting down a piece of the net after the Lady Tigers defeated Fort Frye to win the district title Saturday afternoon

CAMBRIDGE — Three weeks ago, the Shadyside Lady Tigers went back to the drawing board after suffering a loss in the OVAC Class 2A title game.

Today, they’re waking up as district champions.

Shaking off the ill effects of that gut-wrenching loss to River in the conference title game, the Lady Tigers have bounced back with four consecutive victories, including Saturday’s cherished 46-44 win against Fort Frye inside the Gene Ford Gymnasium at Cambridge High School in the Division IV, Eastern District championship game.

“(After the OVAC), we got back in the gym, knowing we still had plenty of goals ahead of us and it’s just a credit to these young ladies for seeing and knowing what we needed to do,” Gentile said.

The Tigers are headed to their first regional tournament since they advanced to the Division IV Final Four in 2011. They’ll return to action Thursday against the winner of the New Albany district in Central Ohio, at Pickerington North High School.

As Gentile and the Lady Tigers expected, getting to the the ‘Sweet 16’ wasn’t easy.

“There should be tense moments (in a district final),” Gentile said. “When you’re playing for a championship with two really good teams, there are going to be back and forths, ups and downs and you just have to kind of ride that wave to make the plays when they counted.”

Fort Frye, which trailed by three after three, opened the fourth with a trey by sophomore Olivia Schneider to knot the game.

But, as it had done time and time again, Shadyside didn’t panic. It simply answered. With sophomore dandies Baylee Wach and Tory Hendershot leading the way, the Lady Tigers scored the next four.

“It seemed like every time (Fort Frye) had some momentum or would make a bucket or two, we’d answer,” Gentile said. “I thought that was huge because you know how momentum can be in basketball.”

The Cadets got a corner trey from Morgan Borich, cutting the lead back to one. However, Wach, who scored a game-high 19 points and collected 10 rebounds, sliced down the lane for an easy one. A possession later, Hendershot went high for a defensive rebound, raced the ball down the floor and laid it in for a 44-39 cushion.

Borich tallied again for the Fort, making it a 3-point game, but Shadyside promptly went into a slow-down mode. It successfully ran more than two minutes off the clock, but came up empty in the bonus situation.

Fort Frye inched within two when sophomore Karlee Ross got within one at the line. Shadyside got one of two at the line. The Cadets had a shot to tie the game from the baseline, but it rimmed out, setting off a Tigers’ celebration.

“With the way they play and how good they are defensively, I thought (the score) would be something like this,” Gentile said. “We had to grind it out. Fort Frye plays really good defense, so we had to capitalize on the open looks we did get. Again, just a credit to the girls.”

Backing Wach and Hendershot was Jaycee Mayeres, who had a strong game with seven points and six rebounds.

The Cadets were led by Borich’s 14 points. Olivia Schneider added 10.