Damon Badgley’s night finished better than it started.

The junior guard missed his first two shot attempts and, more importantly according to his coach, missed two defensive assignments Friday against Martinsville, and quickly went to the bench.

A non-productive first quarter did not mean Badgley would not get a second chance – and he made the most of that opportunity. He hit three three-pointers in the second quarter, added two more in the third and helped Shelbyville defeat the visiting Artesians, 70-51.

Badgley (main photo) finished with a career-high 23 points and Mar Nicholson had 22 points and 10 rebounds to improve the Golden Bears to 7-4 this season.

“We came out in the second quarter and had a lot of fire,” said Badgley. “We knew we were down 18-9 and really needed to push forward. The biggest part of it was our defense. We really locked down and made them make turnovers and rebounded really well. We got killed on that in the first quarter – I think that really helped us out.

“And I finally saw one (shot) go in and started really feeling good.”

Martinsville leading scorer Grady Gardner (20.3 ppg) collected two early fouls in the first quarter and went to the bench. That did not faze Hunter Stroud, who scored his team’s first six points and had nine in the opening quarter when the Artesians built an 18-9 lead.

Shelbyville scored the first 11 points of the second quarter and played its best eight-minute stretch of the season, shooting 56% from the field, limiting the Artesians to two field goals, and outrebounding the opponent 13-5 to take a 33-25 lead into halftime.

“It was good for our guys. We got off to a slow start,” said Shelbyville head coach John Hartnett. “Usually that’s the third quarter for us, but we got off to a slow start in the first quarter and then came out and just blitzed them in the second quarter. Badgley got us going with a couple shots and our defense really picked up and our offensive rebounding really picked up with Nicholson down low. That is the intensity we have to come out with. We can’t wait until the second quarter to do that. We have to do that from the go.”

Badgley entered the game shooting just 30% from the 3-point arc but made 5 of 7 in the middle two quarters Friday on his home court which helped the Golden Bears extend the lead to 51-40 entering the final quarter.

"After I saw those first few go in, I felt like I was having a bit of a night,” explained Badgley. “I’ve worked on it since the Franklin game. I’ve been in the gym before practice. I’ve been the last one to leave. I’ve worked with (assistant coach Brady Claxton) and Caden (Claxton) and shot a lot of extra shots and I think that’s what gave me that confidence boost tonight.”

Shelbyville has established a winning formula of creating a lead going into the fourth quarter and then forcing teams to chase them and foul so the Golden Bears can ice the game from the free-throw line.

Over the final eight minutes Friday, the Golden Bears hit 5 of 9 shots from the field and 9 of 10 free throws to seal its first win over Martinsville since the last time the two programs met on Jan. 30, 1999.

In Shelbyville’s last four wins, it is 45 of 55 (82%) from the free-throw line in the fourth quarter and 78 of 103 (76%) in those games. In their four losses, the Golden Bears are just 22 of 33 from the line.

Badgley also had seven rebounds to go with his career-high scoring performance. Claxton finished with 12 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Kohen Myers (photo, shooting) came off the bench to score nine points, grab five rebounds and dish out four assists.

Stroud finished with 19 points to lead Martinsville (3-5). Gardner finished with just four points on a 1-of-11 shooting night.

Shelbyville’s junior varsity improved to 7-4 this season with a 47-43 come-from-behind win over the Artesians, who led 35-26 after three quarters.

Brody Runnebohm led Shelbyville with 16 points and Gavin Reed had 14 points.

The Golden Bears open the 2024 portion of their schedule on Jan. 6 against Greensburg (7-3).

Steve Bush photos

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