Staff photo / Dan Hiner. Crestview girls basketball coach Aaron Blatch cuts down the net after the Rebels beat Chagrin Falls in a Division V district final at Woodridge High School on Saturday.

PENINSULA — Addison Rhodes grabbed the scissors, took to the ladder and grabbed the net. Unfortunately she had some difficulty cutting down her piece of twine.

“I’m lefthanded, and they’re righthanded scissors,” Rhodes said with a smile afterward.

Grinning from ear to ear as she made her way down the ladder, the Crestview girls basketball team was a district champion after beating Chagrin Falls 50-38 at Woodridge High School in a Division V, Northeast 4 clash.

For this year’s Rebels, it was a jubilant moment. They had made it to the district championship three straight years, but it always ended in a loss, including last season in overtime.

But despite Saturday’s matchup being tight heading into the fourth quarter, Crestview dug deep and pulled out the win. A drought-breaking win at that, as the Rebels clinched their first district title since 2007.

“It’s special for our kids, it’s special for our community that’s supported us throughout the year,” Crestview head coach Aaron Blatch said. “We knew this was going to be a battle tonight, that’s what we said. It’s supposed to be hard, I think it was more meaningful because it was hard.”

Addison Rhodes hit a three with 2:54 left in the first to give the Rebels (23-2) their first lead of the game, 8-5. But the Tigers got the last two buckets of the first quarter to tie the game at 10.

The scoring slowed down during the second, as both teams worked themselves open but couldn’t get the ball through the hoop. The Tigers (15-10) knocked down a pair of 3-pointers, but both times, Crestview’s Kerrigan Miller responded from behind the arc to tie the game.

Through the first 16 minutes, the game was knotted up at 20.

“Kerrigan Miller knocked double a couple big shots or we would have been in some trouble going into halftime,” Blatch said. “We got it tied going into (the) half. I know (Chagrin Falls has) been a very good third-quarter team in the tournament. They’ve gotten down early and fought back.”

The third quarter played out exactly how Blatch expected.

The teams traded baskets and fouls in the third. The game was tied three times and the lead changed hands twice in the period.

But after Rhodes converted both attempts at the free-throw line just over four minutes in, the Rebels had the lead and didn’t trail the rest of the quarter.

The Rebels held a slim 35-33 advantage heading into the fourth. But they dominated the frame and pulled away starting with a 6-0 run to start the quarter.

“I think that was the difference in the game,” Rhodes said. “We came out strong in the fourth quarter, and it gave us a little bit of breathing room. We knew we were in control. That let us settle down a little bit. We didn’t have to do anything we didn’t want to do, they had to do stuff they didn’t want to do.”

Rhodes finished with a game-high 25 points. Miller added nine points, Ava Bucey had seven, Brianna Baker finished with six points and Karli Perry tallied three.

Audry Russell led the Tigers with 11 points.

Now the Rebels advance to the regional semifinals, a branch of the tournament that had evaded them for so long.

Crestview will face Chippewa, who beat Poland in a doubleheader earlier at Woodridge on Saturday afternoon. The opening tip is set for 6 p.m. at Elyria Catholic.

“I don’t want the season to ever end, so we’re just gonna keep going and hopefully get to the state championship,” Rhodes said. “Nobody wants to lose, I certainly don’t want to lose. I’m going to do whatever it takes to win.”