George Rogers Clark’s boys basketball team traveled to Richmond Tuesday night to take on Madison Central in their first road game of the season.

The Cardinals were able to pull out a 73-64 victory, but it wasn’t as easy as their first three wins.

Clark County began the game hot, opening up a 9-2 lead in the opening minutes, but the Indians called a timeout, regrouped and took a 20-16 lead by the end of the first quarter.

It was the first time the Cards had trailed at the end of a quarter all season, but head coach Josh Cook was happy with the way his team responded.

“I was proud. These are the games that get you ready long-term, for February and March,” Cook said. “I thought our kids did a good job. Our bench stepped up. We got ourselves down but we got our guys to fight back, step up and get stops, it was definitely a grow-up game for us.”

The Cardinals were able to hang around the same margin in the second quarter, but their comeback really began after halftime.

“We played hard in the second half. We kind of got caught in the moment a little bit early. We got off to a great start then we kind of got caught ball-watching. When that happens, you kind of forget where your man’s going, and you’ve got to see your man and the ball,” Cook said. “But we pushed back, we made some adjustments at halftime and changed up some of the stuff we were doing. Our guys did a much better job getting stops and rebounding the basketball. And offensively we were probably three times better in the second half.”

The Cards weren’t statistically three times better in the second half, but their numbers did jump significantly. They went from 43.3/22.2/40 splits (field-goal percentage/3-point percentage/free-throw percentage) in the first half to 60.9/50/81.3 in the second half.

One of the Cardinals who helped bring the team back in the second half was Jeremiah Mundy-Lloyd. Mundy Lloyd finished the game with 10 points and 8 rebounds, both of which were season-highs.

“That kind of performance is what I’m looking for from him. He’s got to be one of those high-energy guys for us that’s kind of blue-collar. He can go guard, he can play hard, he can slash, he can do some of the small things,” Cook said. “Him being a sophomore and stepping up in this kind of environment, I’m definitely proud of Jeremiah Mundy tonight.”

The Cards moved to 4-0 on the season with the victory and will travel to Pendleton County Friday night to take on the other 10th Region team that lost a senior to the Kentucky Wildcats. Tipoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.