The Reynoldsburg High School girls basketball team finally got the breakthrough it was looking for Saturday at Olentangy Liberty.

After building as big as a 12-point first-quarter lead, the sixth-seeded Raiders held on to beat No. 4 Brookhaven 56-50 to capture their first Division I district championship since winning back-to-back titles in 1990 and '91.

Reynoldsburg will play in a regional semifinal Tuesday in Otterbein College's Rike Center against Gahanna or Dresden Tri-Valley.

"It's a great feeling," senior T'Shera Lucas said. "We wanted to be the team to win the first district championship for coach (Jack Purtell). I really think we deserved this."

The Raiders ended the Bearcats 18-game winning streak and improved to 19-5. Brookhaven finished 21-3.

"It's an amazing feeling," senior forward Aryelle Covington said. "I've been on varsity since my freshman year, and we've always come up short. And it's not over yet."

Senior guard Kenyell Goodson scored 13 points in the first half as Reynoldsburg built a 27-16 lead. The Bearcats had cut a 15-3 deficit to 21-16 with 2 minutes, 28 seconds left in the second quarter on a basket by Marah Morris, who scored all seven of her points during the period.

Reynoldsburg took a 31-16 lead with 6:55 to go in the third quarter when Brookhaven junior guard Travecia Franklin attempted to single-handedly bring her team back.

Franklin scored nine points in the third period to cut the deficit to 37-29 and then scored 14 more in the fourth as she finished with 29 points.

Brookhaven rallied to make it 46-40 with 2:40 remaining, 49-45 with 1:01 to go and 52-49 with 35.5 seconds left. Covington, who finished with 10 points, made three of four free throws over the final 25 seconds to help seal the win.

Bearcats coach Reggie Lee said his defense didn't do enough during the game's opening moments.

"We didn't have any movement on offense, and we were stale from the jumpstart," he said. "Defensively we weren't pressuring the ball. After the start we started doing a little bit better job of pressuring and we actually outscored them in each of the final three quarters."