George Rogers Clark traveled to Mount Sterling Friday night to take part in a boys and girls doubleheader against the Montgomery County Indians.

The girls team kicked off the doubleheader with their second straight game against the Lady Indians.

The two teams met on Monday when the Lady Cards beat their rival 68-45 after a late-game surge from GRC.

Head coach Robbie Graham was determined to get his team off to a better start in their second matchup of the week.

They did just that.

Kennedy Igo returned to the court for Clark County after missing two games. Igo led the charge early for GRC, scoring nine points in the first quarter giving the Lady Cards a 22-11 lead by the end of the period.

The Lady Cards pushed their lead from 11 points to 12 points by halftime and then from 12 to 19 by the end of the third quarter.

But much like GRC’s performance earlier in the week, Montgomery County had a big fourth quarter, bringing them back to striking distance.

Midway through the fourth quarter, GRC’s lead was cut to 14. The Lady Cardinals were able to regroup and push it back to nearly 20 before Montgomery County cut their deficit to 65-54 with two minutes to play. It was the only time the Cards’ lead would be under 10 points in the second half.

The Lady Cards would then go on a 10-0 lead to end the game, defeating the Lady Indians 75-54.

Free throw shooting was a key to keeping Montgomery County from cutting too far into the lead late as GRC went 7-10 from the charity stripe in the fourth quarter. Tyra Flowers made all seven free throws for the Lady Cards in the final period.

The boys game was a knock-down, drag-out fight from the beginning.

The Cardinals fell behind 7-0 but quickly got back in the game, tying it at 11 by the end of the first quarter.

Montgomery County jumped out to a lead again early in the second quarter, scoring the first five points of the period. But GRC responded with a 7-0 run of their own to take their first lead of the game.

The Indians were able to scrape together another run to close out the half, taking a 28-23 lead over the Cards into the break.

Clark County came out on a mission in the second half defensively. They opened with an 8-4 run to tie the game at 32-32 midway through the quarter. They trailed by one at the end of the quarter, but the momentum had switched their way after they only allowed two baskets in the third.

The Cardinals put themselves in the driver’s seat by scoring and taking a lead on their first play of the final period. They would never look back from their lead.

“I thought defensively we were solid,” GRC head coach Josh Cook said. “We got stops when we needed to, that’s what was most important. We gave up some easy baskets late and we got kind of lazy, but I thought defense was the key for how we controlled the game.”

GRC pushed their lead to as many as seven in the fourth quarter after Jared Wellman hit a pair of 3-pointers.

Montgomery County continued to fight, cutting their deficit to as few as four points with less than a minute remaining.

But GRC held strong, coming away with a 59-52 win against their rival.

The win puts the Cards at 3-0 in district play to begin the season with a matchup against Bourbon County on the horizon.

“It means a lot based on district play because our district is going to be really good. But either way we’re going to play a good team,” Cook said. “It really means a lot to me though because it was an overall team win tonight. Our bench had to play well, our guys had to step up and for me these type of wins teach you to be good long-term.”

With the sweep, GRC moves to 3-0 against Montgomery County between boys and girls basketball this season.

Both teams are back in action again Saturday night as they compete in the Central Bank MLK Classic at Robert D. Campbell. The Cardinals will compete in two of the six games that will be held at Letcher Norton Gymnasium. The Lady Cardinals will take on one of the region’s top teams in Bishop Brossart at 5:30 p.m. and the boys will play Breathitt County at 7:15 p.m.