Motivation can go a long way in winning basketball games — especially if you used to play for the opposing team.

Maiden High junior Casey Schell drained six 3-pointers — five in the first half — on her way to a game-high 20 points, and helped lead the Blue Devils to a Catawba Valley Athletic Conference win over visiting Fred T. Foard 73-55 on Tuesday night.

“It felt pretty good,” Schell said. She got hot early, and helped put the Blue Devils (10-11, 9-8) in prime position for the win.

Schell hit the first of her six 3s — the most in her career — at the 5-minute mark of the first period to give Maiden a 6-3 lead. By the time she hit the second one 2 1-2 minutes later, she knew she was going to have a good night shooting-wise. “(Once I hit the second one) it just felt right,” she said. “But I couldn’t have done it without and of (my teammates). They all had a part in this.”

Her teammates helped set the Fred T. Foard-transfer up for good looks all night long, driving to the basket and kicking the ball out to an open Schell on the perimeter, similar to the style of offense the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and this year’s Duke Blue Devils run. Maiden implored this type of offense — a five-guard set — not too long ago when the possibility of losing the Blue Devils’ leading scorer and rebounder Kiyosha England crept into head coach Preston Clarke’s mind, whether to injury or foul trouble. “We’ve been working on (that type of offense) at practice,” he said. “You always have to be prepared.”

On Tuesday, his Blue Devils faced that scenario, and they executed perfectly.

England had to go to the bench after picking up her fourth foul with 5:32 left in the third quarter. Once that happened, Clarke was forced to go small. With England on the bench, Maiden used a 6-0 spurt about the time she went out to break a 38-all tie and take the lead at 44-38 with around 3 minutes left in the period, and it never looked back. “What we worked on in practice paid dividends,” Clarke said.

The Tigers kept the game close through the first half, and used a smothering defense to force 14 Maiden turnovers. The Blue Devils led 30-28 at the break.

In the first half though, Clarke wasn’t particularly pleased with his own team’s defensive performance. Although the Blue Devils forced 10 turnovers, they couldn’t stop Yoya Connelly inside, as she scored all 12 of her points in the first half. “I didn’t think we played very good defense — as a matter of fact, it was awful,” Clarke said. “We wasn’t with it defensively. If you’re going to win in this league, you gotta play defense.”

In the second half, the Blue Devils stepped it up defensively. Led by Tonisha Chislom with five steals, they turned seven second-half Tigers’ turnovers into 10 points, and ran away with the game late in the third quarter. “(Chislom’s) the best defender I’ve got, hands down,” Clarke said. She turned her five steals into eight of her 19 points, including the last four points of the ballgame for Maiden.

Fred T. Foard took its first lead at 16-15 with just under 6 minutes to play in the first half after Connelly found the net on a layup. The teams traded leads on the next two possessions, and the Tigers built their largest lead of the game (five) at 22-17 after Connelly drained a 3 with 4:38 left in the half. The teams ended the half by basically trading baskets, giving the Blue Devils the two-point halftime lead.

Fred T. Foard jumped out to a 34-30 lead after two quick 3s from Candy McDanel at the beginning of the third quarter, but Maiden’s defense, which was then in a zone, went back to man-to-man, and closed out the game.

Schell’s 20 and Chisolm’s 19 led Maiden in scoring. Morgan Brindle came away with 13 points and eight rebounds. Lacey Schanilec led Fred T. Foard with seven rebounds. Quazzy Tipps and McDanel added 11 points.