George Rogers Clark’s boys basketball team suffered their first loss of the season Tuesday night to the Ashland-Blazer Tomcats.

“We’re going to get better. It’s going to help us get better,” GRC head coach Josh Cook said after the loss. “Scouting-wise, I don’t know if we paid as much attention as we need to at times. But that was great for us long-term.”

Both teams entered the game undefeated, and they played like they were for the entire 32 minutes. In fact, they were so evenly matched through the first 32 minutes, they had to head to overtime to find a winner.

The game began with GRC’s Lincoln Bush dominating in the paint. Bush accumulated 14 points by halftime along with six rebounds. Twelve of his 14 points came from inside the paint, a stat the Cardinals dominated the Tomcats in. By halftime, GRC had an 18-2 advantage in points in the paint but only held a 27-25 lead.

The Tomcats were able to stick around by shooting 44 percent from three in the first half compared to GRC’s 14 percent.

The second half was a rollercoaster ride from the beginning. The lead changed 15 times in the second half alone.

The Cardinals had a four-point lead, nearly the largest for either team all night, with five minutes to play before a big Tomcats 3-pointer cut it back to one. That sparked a 9-3 Ashland run to give them a lead with 2:30 left in the game.

The game would swing back and forth with each team shooting free-throws to put their team ahead seemingly every trip down the floor.

With a minute to play and down a point, Sammy Hernandez picked up a big steal to get the Cards the ball back, he then passed it to Bush who was fouled. Bush hit both free-throws to put the Cards back on top.

The Tomcats answered with another 3-pointer, their eighth of the night, to put them up two with 19 seconds to play.

Bush then went back to the line for two more, split them, and the Cards were down one with 13 seconds left and the Tomcats had the ball.

The Cardinals fouled, the Tomcats hit both of their free-throws, and GRC had to have a 3-pointer to tie the game.

Cook put Reed Johnson in the game for the final possession.

The Cardinals got the ball to Johnson who drained the tying-shot with 2 seconds left.

After the game, Cook said he wants more guys on his team to have the confidence to shoot shots like that.

“If some guys are open, I just want them to shoot it. I believe in those guys,” Cook said. “Get in the gym and practice your shots. When you’ve got time to shoot, shoot game-like shots and get some confidence.”

The Cards then got a steal and got a shot up on the ensuing inbounds play, but it didn’t fall and the game went to overtime.

The Tomcats jumped out to a quick lead in overtime, but the Cardinals fought back.

Down five with 45 seconds to play, Jared Wellman hit a three to cut it to two and turn it into a free-throw shooting contest. But the Tomcats hit their free-throws when it counted the most and handed GRC their first loss of the season.

The Cardinals will try to bounce back from their first loss Friday when they take on Paris in their first district game of the season.

“I know we’re young, but I hope people still stay behind them. We lost to a good basketball team and it’s December, you know what I mean?” Cook said. “We’ll learn from this and move forward and I hope we respond well. Practice is going to be really important and then we’ll go from there.”

The game against Paris is scheduled for a 7:30 p.m. tip Friday at Letcher Norton Gymnasium.