The GRC WinCity basketball team is one win away from their fourth straight region title after a 69-56 win over the Harrison County Thoroughbreds last night. 

It was a mostly dominant force from the Cardinals from start to finish. They were able to jump out to an 11-0 lead early and force Harrison to burn an early timeout. After the timeout the Cardinals were able to continue their run to 22-2 and were up 24-6 after the opening quarter. 

GRC was able to continue their dominance in the first half going into the half up 41-19. It was the senior Jerone Morton who led the team with 15 points at the half along with Tyleik Maxwell who had 10 at the half. Morton finished with 25 points and four rebounds, followed by Sam Parrish with 16. 

The Cardinals cooled off in the second half only taking 19 shot attempts and were outscored 37-28 by Harrison County. 

Head Coach Josh Cook was very pleased with his team’s performance tonight, and thought that the slow second half may have been the team looking forward to tomorrow night.  

“We had a great start tonight,” Coach Cook said after the win. “We did some great things early. We had lots of emotions running high, but the focus was perfect early.  In the second half we did get a little sloppy but I think our guys were ready to move on to tomorrow night.” 

Maxwell gave the team a solid performance last night for the Cards putting up 10 points and grabbing 3 rebounds. Maxwell is a player that only makes the Cardinals even more dangerous here in the postseason. 

The win will give the Cardinals a Region championship match-up with our rivals from Mason County. These teams go way back, and emotions will run high.

Mason finished the regular season in first place in the 10th Region with a perfect record in region play and came in with an overall record of 28-5. The Royals are currently a top 25 team in the state and haven’t won a region title since the 2015-2016 season, which means they’re hungry to regain that title of region champions. 

It’s going to be a crazy, ruckus environment. Their fanbase will fill that Fieldhouse with half the town and it’s going to be extremely loud. 

It’s something the Cardinals are going to have to be ready for and be able to weather the storm when that place gets rockin’. 

Coach Cook though thinks his guys will be ready for it. “We just have to go live in the moment,” he said. “Go trust yourself and your team. At this point we just gotta go play and do whatever it takes to help your team.”  

Tonight Clark County needs to go fill up the Fieldhouse with black and red to be just as loud as the Royals fans. Mason County will pack it out and all of our community, including students and staff, needs to go out and support this team to help will this team to their fourth straight region championship.