T-L Photo/SETH STASKEY BELLAIRE’S Katrina Davis drives to the basket as Shadyside’s Baylee Wach defends. Also pictured is Kamdyn Elerick. Davis scored a game-high 18 points, but the Tigers posted the victory, 55-43.

BELLAIRE — Shadyside came into Monday’s game at Bellaire knowing that nothing about the first meeting last month would matter in the latest showdown.

Quite simply, the Big Reds have made significant improvement as the season has gone along and they boast arguably the best player in the area in senior Katrina Davis.

Those two factors along with a several missed shots from in close caused Tiger head coach Serge Gentile some anxious moments during the course of the game. However, the Tigers connected on seven bonus goals and fended off the hosts for a 55-43 victory.

“Bellaire’s scrappy, plays hard and they have a really, really good player (in Davis),” Gentile said. “She makes a ton of plays for them, gets basically every rebound and impacts the game in so many ways, but we were able to settle down and make enough plays to get the win.”

Gentile’s analysis was basically spot on.

Davis was up to her normal tricks. She led the Big Reds in basically every statistical category that exists, including her 18 points, 11 rebounds and seven steals. However, no other Bellaire player found double figures.

“We’re still looking for that second person to be a steady scorer for us, but these girls just played their butts off again,” Bellaire head coach John Farrier said. “We wanted to flip the script (from the prior meeting Monday) and even though we didn’t, we played a lot better than we did (at Shadyside), which is something we’ve been doing throughout the season.”

The win makes Shadyside 15-5 and clinched the top seed in next week’s OVAC Class 2A Tournament, assuring itself a home game.

Bellaire, meanwhile, is 14-6 and will once again be part of the conference tournament field with a lengthy road trip to Fort Frye for a rematch of last season’s Class 3A title game on the horizon.

Before full attention could be shifted to the OVAC Tournament, neither team was going away. Shadyside appeared a few times like it was closing in on a spurt to pull away, but seemingly Davis had an answer.

She set up junior Jayden Lowe with a nifty feed inside for a third-quarter bucket, which made it a 37-33 game in favor of the Tigers. However, Shadyside proceeded to score the next seven, including an inside goal from hard-working freshman Gentry Brown and a trey from junior standout Baylee Wach.

All told, the Tigers carried a 46-38 lead into the fourth and basically held Bellaire at bay, limiting the Big Reds to just one field goal.

Shadyside was led by its dynamic junior duo. Tory Hendershot finished with 17, while Wach hit four bonus goals and finished with 14. Sophomore Paige Gorby added 10.

Davis’ production was backed by Lowe’s nine.