shift problem

I have a 97 Saturn with 148k miles on it. Had my shifter cable replaced a few months ago, the mechanic that did it had to do it 2 times so it was either bad work on his part or bad cables. Guy at work who works on cars said that shifting is a little to tight, that it shouldnt be as hard as it was to shift. Well over the last few months have not had a problem with it, it seemed to be fine, btw the reason I took it back to him a few more times was cause he was fixing it for free since it broke. Now im having trouble shifting into mainly 2nd gear and sometimes 4th. I have never had a clutch put in it, and I dont have to push my clutch in far for me to be able to shift gears so assuming that my clutch is ok. (im thinking if it was clutch then every gear would be a problem and it would always be hard to shift?) When im turning a corner and coming from 3rd to 2nd its really hard...sometimes I can't go into it, but if I go to 3rd or even first and go into 2nd it works fine. So is my clutch going bad? Maybe something a little loose in the shifter?

After market cables? No good. You need dealer only shifter cables.