George Rogers Clark’s boys basketball team traveled to Versailles Tuesday night to take on Woodford County in a cross-region game.

Both teams entered the game on winning streaks. The Cards were on a six-game streak and the Yellow Jackets had won two in a row entering the contest.

GRC fell behind early after Woodford County, the state’s top 3-point shooting team, began the game on fire.

The Yellow Jackets hit four of their five 3-point attempts in the first quarter and added two more in the second quarter compared to GRC’s two made triples in the first half.

Clark County trailed by only two following the first quarter, but Woodford hit its stride in the second and third quarters, extending their lead to 58-39 entering the final quarter.

“They shot it well and they made us pay for quite a few things. We gambled a few times and we struggled to put the ball in the hole,” GRC head coach Josh Cook said. “We’ve just got to hang in there. We’ve got to get better in our transition defense. Woodford County made big shots and put us on the spot and we had to make a decision if we wanted to fight back or not.”

The Cardinals decided they wanted to fight back.

GRC’s late-game run began with four minutes left in the game. Down 20 to start, the Cardinals scored four points in the blink of an eye to force Woodford to take a timeout.

Still trailing by double-digits, GRC continued to battle, cutting it to 11 with 1:30 on the clock.

Cook subbed offense for defense after every possession, having to foul each time on defense if they weren’t able to force a turnover.

A corner three from Reed Johnson cut the deficit to seven with 30 seconds to play, the first time the Yellow Jackets’ lead had been in single digits in the second half.

Woodford County then missed both free throws and GRC cut the lead to five on a fast-break layup, but that was as close as they would come as there wasn’t enough time to complete the comeback, falling 75-68 to Woodford County.

“I’m really proud of that effort. That was really pleasing for me to see. It’s nice to know we can play lineups that can get after it and keep going, keep competing and keep playing,” Cook said. “At that point, it’s about toughness. We’re a young team overall, but it was good to see our guys show some toughness and try to get back in the game. Really we were only a minute or two away from maybe coming back and doing something really special.”

GRC’s next game will be against its biggest rival, Montgomery County. The Cardinals and the Indians face off in Mount Sterling in a doubleheader with the girls team. The boys game is set to tip at 7:30 p.m.

It’s the first matchup between the boys teams this season and Cook knows how important the game is.

“Our practices have to be really good, I’ll say that,” Cook said. “I’m going to try to get everything I can ready for them but they’re going to have two days to get ready for a big district game.”