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Last year, in a hard-fought matchup, the George Rogers Clark High School boys basketball team won the inaugural WinCity Holiday Classic tournament with a victory over Rowan County. 

This past weekend, there was much to cheer about once again. 

The host Cardinals defeated East Jessamine and Taylor County to repeat as champions, remaining undefeated in tournament competition. 

“It’s exciting to be able to win your own tournament,” said GRC Boys Basketball Head Coach Josh Cook. “It’s also…[a] great opportunity to be able to run something for our community, our school, and our kids.” 

The tournament began on Friday, December 20, when the Cards (8-0) took on the East Jessamine Jaguars (1-8) in a semifinal matchup. 

In a game the Cards led from the start, GRC was victorious by its biggest margin of victory in the season thus far in a 69-32 win. 

Led by 16 points from sophomore Montez Gay and 14 from senior Eli Craig, GRC scored the game’s first 14 points while a strong defensive effort curtailed the Jaguars’ efforts. 

“We’ve done some good things. We were able to speed the pace up…we did put a lot of pressure on the ball to put this tempo where we need to be [in order] to play,” Cook added. 

“I feel like we dominated the paint real well,” Gay said. “As a team, we shot the ball well.” 

After the Taylor County Cardinals defeated the Daviess County Panthers in the other semifinal matchup, a battle of Cardinals was set for the championship game one night later. 

Led by eight first quarter points from Davier White, Taylor County (6-2) threatened GRC early – taking a five-point, 19-14 lead at the end of the first quarter. 

Yet, undaunted, GRC responded. 

“We played three really, really good quarters defensively against a really good opponent,” Cook said. “[Sophomore] JaMylyn Johnson came in and did a phenomenal [defensive] job on [White]…we also used [junior] Sam Spillman as well…it was a full defensive [team] effort.” 

In a game that stayed close throughout, GRC pulled away in the fourth quarter and moved on to a celebratory 69-53 victory. 

“I thought it was one of our better games,” Cook said. 

Junior Malachi Ashford, the Cards’ starting point guard, was named Player of the Game. 

“He was really good…he was aggressive. He made his teammates better,” Cook added. “I thought he played a very good overall floor game and [was] one of the big reasons we won.” Coach Cook, in addition to celebrating the win, offered much gratitude to the boosters, parents, coaching staff, and more “ for all their hard work the past couple [of] days.” 

“Being able to host an event is not easy, but…I’m surely thankful for that,” he added.