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Going into their Regional Quarterfinal contest against Robertson County (13-20) on Wednesday night, the question faced by GRC was how they would stop Justin Becker, Kentucky’s number 2 scorer and a commit to Thomas More University.

After his initial three-point shot gave the Black Devils a quick 3-0 lead, GRC found its answer.

The Cards held Becker below his season average and piled up over 100 points for the second straight postseason game to defeat Robertson County 103-50 and set up a contest between the Cards and Mason County (24-5) on Monday night at 6:00 pm in Covington.

“They like the challenge of it, they respect [Becker],” Head Coach Josh Cook said. “We rotate guys in. We’ve got some guys who are going to play pretty good basketball at a high level. They want to go guard him, and have the challenge to guard an excellent player like him.”

As has been commonplace, GRC went on an early offensive run, scoring 20 unanswered points after the Black Devils’ initial basket to build a double-digit lead.

“I think it’s a great shooting gym,” Coach Cook said. “We wanted to come out and get our guys out here, feel the intensity of the gym, feel the heat, get into the rhythm of the environment.”

Despite being 7 games below .500, the Black Devils weren’t one to back down without a fight. Clawing to get back into the game, they found a way to narrow the deficit to as little as 11 points with just under 8 minutes remaining in the second quarter.

However, that’s as close as they would get.

Punctuated by a strong finish to the first half – including a slam dunk in the final seconds by junior Jerone Morton – the Cards took a large, 24-point lead into the locker room and never looked back.

“They [Robertson County] did a good job of handling some pressure, and making shots,” Cook said. “Later on, we quit thinking and started playing, and that kind’ve separated the game.”

Always one to look for another edge, the Cards took what had been a 53-29 halftime lead and built it into a dominant 41-point advantage at the end of the third quarter, ending this time on a dunk by Trent Edwards that doubled the score to 82-41 in favor of GRC.

Morton would finish with a game high 29 points, while he and Sam Parrish tied for the lead with 5 rebounds each.

“We wanted to make sure guys were in the right spots based on scouting and personnel,” Cook said. “They guarded personnel correctly, which allowed us to open up and run-on offense.”

With the Cards’ bench seeing much playing time in the fourth quarter, points were added by Chester Abbott, JP Gaines, and a slew of others.

In total, ten different Cardinals found the scoreboard on a night when they had a 62.7% field goal percentage.

Following the victory, the Cards moved their record to 31-1 on the season, and will prepare to take on the Royals, who defeated Bishop Brossart earlier Wednesday night to advance.

At 24-5, their opponent currently has the 2nd -best record in the 10th Region. The winner faces off against the victor of the contest between Campbell County (19-10) and Bracken County (22-9) the next night, Tuesday March 8 th at 7:00 pm, in the Boys 10th Region Championship Game.

Sports contributor Matt Cizek wrote this story for the Winchester Sun.