It wasn’t about how Brownstown Central started, but how the team finished.

Leading 44-37 headed into the third quarter, the Braves boys basketball team amassed 22 points in the final stanza to defeat Mitchell 64-44 on Saturday.

When the fourth quarter rolled around, the Braves’ offense ignited.

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Braves sophomore Cody Waskom opened the final quarter with a 3-pointer on the first possession.

Jacoby Shade and Zack McCory each netted six points to help the Braves take a 62-41 lead with 1:38 left in the game.

Both teams then emptied their benches as the Braves sailed to their third straight win.

In the first quarter, the Braves and Bluejackets battled back-and-forth.

McCory was able to score a layup through contact and make a free throw on the team’s first possession to take an early 3-0 lead. On the next possession, Shade netted a 3-pointer at the 7:05 mark to go up 6-0.

The Bluejackets then hit a 3-pointer to get their offense rolling at 5:05. The two teams traded the lead three times, and the Braves led 18-17 after McCory hit a layup with eight ticks left on the clock.

Despite their hot start offensively while making five 3-pointers, the Bluejackets failed to find much rhythm in the second period.

The Braves outscored the Bluejackets 12-7 in the second quarter to take a 37-31 lead into intermission.

Following the break, the Bluejackets were able to close the gap to 37-44 with 13 points.

McCory led the Braves with 21 points, and Shade helped his team win the rebounding battle, 23-20, with eight boards.

Despite his team’s win, Braves coach Dave Benter said he saw a lot of areas that needed improvement.

“The three things that concerned me tonight were the 50-50 battles, missed layups and turnovers,” Benter said. “We ended up with only 11 turnovers, but our travels and post-entry passes are things we can control and didn’t do a very good job of. We are just not where we want to be defensively yet.”

The night before, at North Harrison, the Braves only led by four points headed into the fourth quarter. They came away with a 67-51 win thanks in part to 11 points from Shade in the final eight minutes.

“We have a lot of guys that can score,” Benter said. “Our consistency in our scoring is not where I would like it to be yet. We have a lot of shooters surrounding our core scorers, but we need to be more consistent. We can’t have guys scoring 21 points one night and two points the next.”