You are over-reacting when you determine that she feared them -if she had, she would have been a little more hesitant about engaging them in combat once more.
Additionally, you have no idea how suppressed that blast actually was, so it's a fallacy for you to determine any sort of power-scaling because of it. But based upon all the fight scenes that occurred up until that point, it's sufficient to say that they are weaker than Semi-Perfect Cell at the very least. Other-wise, they could stand in one place and casually walk forward, tanking everything in the process and push her off the ring.
You are also speculating when you assume that she would have been one shotted if she engaged the boys in hand to hand combat. The evidence we have implies the complete opposite.
Trunks couldn't win in physical combat, even as a Super Saiyan. No, don't argue that a suit decreased his battle power, or speed, because that is heresy. This implies that -even as a Super Saiyan, he did not have the physical battle power to subdue her, something Cell would do instantaneously, and did.
There is a-lot that can be over-looked in Dragonball, but it still has its basic rules and principals that it follows. Teen Gohan SSj losing to Android 18 simply isn't one of them.