Fort Frye’s Ava Huffman (4) gets around Shenandoah defenders and goes up for a basket during Wednesday’s game at Dan Liedtke Court. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY — The Fort Frye Cadets gained a measure of revenge Wednesday night as they downed the visiting Shenandoah Zeps 43-31 on Dan Liedtke Court.

Odds are the two Division VI, East District rivals will do battle again later in the season in either the OVAC tournament in early February or the state tournament a bit later on.

After suffering an overtime loss to the Zeps earlier in the season in Sarahsville, the Cadets out-pointed Shenandoah 19-7 over the final 10 minutes of the game Wednesday to pull away to the win.

“We played a little sluggish up there earlier in the season so the girls wanted to come out and prove that wasn’t them,” said first-year Cadet head coach Cathy Borich. “Shenandoah is a very good, physical team but I didn’t think we let that physicality get to us like we did there.”

Fort Frye would lose the middle two periods of the game to the Zeps but did enough in the first and fourth quarters to make up the difference.

Fort Frye’s Ella Dowler (32) brings the ball up the court as Shenandoah’s Molly Van Fleet (33) and Emma Dailey (15) defend during Wednesday’s game at Dan Liedtke Court. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Cadets got a couple of early three-pointers from junior Ella Dowler to take a 10-4 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Dowler rang the bell from long distance two more times early in the second quarter as the Cadets built a nine-point lead.

“She (Dowler) was shooting the ball well tonight and that was great to see,” said Borich of Dowler. “She can put points up in bunches when she gets hot like that.”

Shenandoah answered late in the second quarter as they scored the final seven points of the half.

A three-pointer by Emily Moore followed by two-pointers by Emma Dailey and Molly Van Fleet sent the Zeps to the locker room trailing by just two after they trailed by much more for most of the first half.

The Zeps quickly tied the game back up on a Brenna Leach two-pointer to begin the second half, but Dowler answered with her fifth three-pointer of the game to put the Fort back in the lead.

Shenandoah came charging right back as it scored the next eight points to open up a 26-21 lead.

Leach scored three of the Zeps’ four field goals in the run with Van Fleet scoring the other.

The Cadets were in need of someone other than Dowler to step up and hit a big shot and Elle Casto delivered as she canned a triple to pull the Cadets back within two.

Leach answered with her 10th point of the third quarter to give Shenandoah a 28-24 lead with just under two minutes to play in the third.

With the Zeps defense clearly focused on keeping the ball out of the hands of Dowler, it would be another Cadet junior who provided some much needed offense in Ava Huffman.

Huffman drove the baseline and finished for two before freshman Raelann Morgenstern connected on 1-of-2 at the charity stripe to cut the lead to a single point.

On the Cadets’ next possession Huffman drew a foul only to miss both free throws.

The second shot bounced off of the rim and Cadet junior Aubrie Lang out-hustled everyone to save the ball inbounds to Morgenstern.

Morgenstern then alertly found a wide open Casto under the basket for two to give the Cadets the lead (29-28) at the end of three quarters.

The Cadets were out-rebounded comfortably by the much taller Zeps (33-22) but Fort Frye managed to come up with some key boards at the most opportune times.

“They (Shenandoah) are big and strong so they are going to get their share of rebounds,” said Borich. “We did a lot better job of boxing out and came up with some huge rebounds.”

Huffman drove the baseline once again for two more to begin the fourth quarter and then made a pair of free throws to increase the lead to five points.

Dowler followed with a pair of free throws before Leach stopped the bleeding for the Zeps with a field goal.

With 4:21 to play in the game Huffman drew yet another foul and this time made them both to extend the lead to six and the Cadets took care of business at the foul line the rest of the way to secure the win.

Huffman scored all 12 of her points in the final 10 minutes of the game as she made 8-of-12 from the free-throw line.

Dowler led all scorers with 17 points including 5-of-6 from behind the arc.

Leach led the way for the Zeps with 14 points and 10 rebounds.

The Zep senior standout accounted for all but three of the points scored by Shenandoah in the second half.

Van Fleet added six points and a game-high 12 boards for the Zeps, who travel to River on Friday night.

With the Cadets’ win the two teams now have identical 13-2 records as they head into the final two weeks of the regular season.

“It was a really good team effort tonight and everyone contributed in one aspect or another,” said Borich, whose squad will travel to Linsly Saturday afternoon. “Shenandoah has a great team and it’s a good possibility we will see them again before this season is over.”