After transferring to Shelbyville Central High School last year, former Marshall County basketball standout Jameka Braden returned to her old stomping grounds on Friday night when she and her Eaglette teammates defeated the MCHS Tigerettes 61-33 in Lewisburg.

The Tigerettes (2-7) appeared they might spoil Braden's homecoming early on and held a 20-19 lead at halftime.

Second half charge

Shelbyville (5-5) then put their foot on the gas in the second half and outscored Marshall County 42-13 over the final two quarters to roll to the 28-point victory.

"The girls were very excited to play against Jameka because they played with her in school and AAU. She's a great athlete and a great person, but I told the girls that tonight she's the enemy," said MCHS coach Jerrie Henry. "We didn't come out with the same intensity in the second half. Our girls are young, but we can't use that as an excuse. We have to learn how to play four quarters instead of two."

Despite hitting just 3-of-19 attempts from three-point range, the Eaglettes finished with 23 field goals on 39 percent shooting, highlighted by a 17-of-32 effort in the second half. Shelbyville also committed just nine turnovers, outrebounded the Tigerettes 36-18, and held a 21-6 edge on the offensive glass.

Braden surge

Braden spearheaded Shelbyville's second half surge by scoring 11 of her game high 17 points over the last two periods to go along with nine rebounds and five steals.

"I was kind of nervous at first and it didn't feel right being on the opposite team," said Braden. "I felt like people wanted to see how much I had improved so there was a lot of pressure. I just wanted to win tonight so it felt good to get all the nerves out."

Romny Felts and Hannah Calvert followed Braden with eight points apiece, while To'Nesha Allison, Olivia Calvert, and Jennifer Martin each tallied six points.

Except for a 5-of-6 shooting performance in the second quarter, the Tigerettes struggled offensively for much of the evening and shot just 32 percent (11-of-34) from the field overall, while knocking down only 2-of-8 attempts from beyond the arc and committing 23 turnovers.

Zachuriya O'Neal led MCHs with eight points and four assists. Kiya Morris and Allison Hargrove also notched seven points apiece, while Taianda Hutton and Mecia Reed chipped in four and three points respectively. Alexis Ford and Christy Pettigrew rounded out the scoring for the Tigerettes with two points each.

Early lead

Shelbyville inched out to an early 4-2 lead before Morris hit a runner and made two free throws to give Marshall County a 6-4 advantage midway through the first quarter.

After the Eaglettes tallied the next four points to pull back ahead 8-6, the Tigerettes outscored Shelbyville 9-5 over the next 7:48 with the help of four points from O'Neal and a Morris trey to seize a 15-13 lead late in the second period.

The Eaglettes then used a 6-2 spurt to grab a 19-17 advantage, but Reed nailed a three from the left corner as time expired in the first half to stake MCHS to a 20-19 lead.

Things, though, quickly went downhill for Marshall County in the second half, as Shelbyville opened the third quarter with a 17-3 run to claim a 37-23 advantage with :50 left in the stanza.

Fourth period

The Tigerettes trimmed the deficit 37-27 early in the fourth period thanks to an O'Neal jumper and a layup by Morris, but the Eaglettes kept their foot on MCHS' neck and outscored Marshall County 17-4 over the next five minutes to open up a 54-31 lead.

Pettigrew then scored on an offensive put back to narrow the gap to 54-33 before Shelbyville notched the final seven points of the game to cap their 61-33 triumph.