The George Rogers Clark boys and girls basketball teams headed to Maysville Friday night for a doubleheader against the Royals at The Fieldhouse.
The girls team took the floor first and came out firing on all cylinders.
Mason County took a brief 6-4 lead before GRC went on a 14-point run to take a lead they wouldn’t look back from.
The Lady Royals wouldn’t make it easy for Clark County as they responded with eight straight points, but GRC scored the final six points of the first quarter to push their lead to 24-14.
Mason County opened up the second quarter with a basket, but GRC would go 12-1 run to double the Lady Royals’ point total.
The run was largely sparked due to Mason County turning the ball over more than 10 times in the first half.
“We created some turnovers, got some deflections and got easy baskets,” GRC head coach Robbie Graham said. “But I was kind of disappointed with our focus.”
That focus wasn’t a problem for the Lady Cards until the end of the game. Entering the final frame up 59-36, Clark County began to coast in the fourth quarter.
Mason County was able to score 14 straight points in the quarter to cut GRC’s lead to as few as 13, but the Lady Cardinals would pick it back up late to come away with a 77-54 victory.
“We won and it’s always good to win, but sometimes you’ve got to start doing things a little differently — a little better — especially this late in the season. We’ve got to start turning the corner,” Graham said. “We had too many turnovers, missed too many easy shots and free throws. We’ve got to keep working and keep grinding away.”
The Lady Cardinals will be back in action Tuesday night against Woodford County at 6 p.m. in the new gym, something Graham is really looking forward to.
“We’re extremely excited. We got to practice in there the other day and hopefully we’ll get a couple more practices in there this weekend. It’s a phenomenal arena — I won’t even call it a gym because it’s an arena,” Graham said. “I’m excited for our county, our community, our students. We’re really excited to get in there to play.”
The Cardinals’ boys basketball team didn’t have the same hot start as the girls team did as they fell behind 9-2 early in the first quarter.
However, Lincoln Bush and Jerone Morton turned it on offensively, scoring seven and six points to tie the game at 15 before Mason County hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to give them a lead.
GRC’s offense shot the ball well in the first half, making 14 of 28 shots from the floor. Morton hit double figures with 12 points before halftime.
Their defense was also playing well, holding the Royals to 31.4 percent shooting from the floor in the first half, putting the Cardinals ahead 29-26 at the break.
“We were where we were supposed to be defensively,” head coach Josh Cook said. “After the first few minutes of the half, we tried hard to guard and did some good things,”
The offense from the first half would not show up for the Cards in the third quarter. Mason County went on an 14-2 run during the first seven minutes of the half as GRC couldn’t buy a basket.
“It’s hard to tell guys to keep guarding when shots don’t fall, but guys still need to continue to guard and we failed to do that in the second half. I tell the guys at this time of the year mentalities have to be strong,” Cook said. “When you’re not playing well you have to continue to be a good team player and help lead your team. This is the time of year where your team has to grow up and be ready to play. These environments, it’s about players and leadership on the floor. We’re going to continue to try to work on that over the next several weeks.
The Cardinals did make a surge in the fourth quarter, cutting their deficit to as few as three points but could never get over the hump and fell 60-53 to Mason County.
GRC will be back in the doubleheader on Tuesday night following the girls game. They will take on Madison Southern and Cook is ready to play.
“I’m extremely excited,” Cook said. “It’s a great opportunity, it should be exciting. The kids need to play with a lot of heart and passion and understand they need to do whatever it takes to help the team play its best basketball.”

 

GIRLS SCORING

Tyra Flowers – 19, Kennedy Igo – 17, Shelbi Wilson – 12, Brianna Byars – 11, Trinity Gay – 8, Ciara Byars – 4, Erica Berry – 4, Amber Miller – 2

BOYS SCORING

Jerone Morton – 23, Lincoln Bush – 11, Jared Wellman – 6, KJ Rucker – 4, Reed Johnson – 3, Stanlety Smothers – 2, Sammy Hernandez – 2