GRC pummels Fillies for 10th region title

Published 10:50 pm Tuesday, March 5, 2019

The George Rogers Clark Lady Cards sealed their third straight 10th Region title Tuesday after pummeling the Harrison County Fillies 71-49.

GRC was clicking early after Jasmine Flowers knocked the first shot of the game with a three in the corner.

With a Harrison turnover on its first possession, Flowers pushed the ball the length of the court for an and-one to go up 6-0 in the first minute of the game.

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The Lady Cards were rolling and led 12-2 to force a timeout from the Fillies.

The timeout did not slow down the pace as GRC led 20-10 after the first quarter.

GRC jumped out on a 9-0 run in the second quarter and quickly drained the life out of Harrison and outscored the Fillies 21-4 in the quarter.

The Lady Cards led by 30 at the end of the third quarter and they could already sense the trophy being held high.

Hayley Harrison controlled the tempo for GRC with 24 points.

Jasmine Flowers added nine points, Tyra Flowers and Kennedy Igo posted six points a piece and Shelbi Wilson had eight points.

Head coach Robbie Graham cleared the bench with five minutes left in the game as the Lady Cards got a roaring standing ovation from the crowd.

Graham said three region championships in a row feels unbelievable.

“I couldn’t be more proud of a bunch of kids,” he said. “We’ve gone through so much this season with injuries, sickness and other things. The resiliency of this team is outstanding. A lot of respect for coach Kim (Marshall) and Harrison County. They had a great season. We really worked hard to get to this point. We felt like we needed to come out early and attack the basket and be aggressive. We needed to be great on the defensive end and I thought we did that. We got them riled up a little bit. Our size blocked their guards’ shots and we mentally got to them. We did a good job of helping each other. We were rebounding, diving on the floor and taking charges. It came together in all categories for us. We’re very excited to be in this position. What a great group of girls we coach. The smiles on their faces after all this hard work is definitely a great feeling.”

The Lady Cards struggled early against Scott Monday, but overcame the struggles in a dominant second half.

Graham said his team was more scared to lose Monday night and weren’t focused on just going out there and playing.

“I thought we played real tight against Scott,” he said. “I think some of them were playing not to lose and were afraid it may end. We want them to just play. They were overthinking. We were talking to them at walk-through earlier and told them to just play. We know the game and love it and do what you do and it’ll take care of itself. We played relaxed and I thought we played a heck of a game.”

GRC will face Mercy March 13 in the first round of KHSAA Sweet 16 Tournament at Rupp Arena.

Graham admits he is not looking that far ahead just yet and wants to soak in the moment with his team and the community.

“We know what’s ahead,” he said. “We know it’s a bear we’ll be battling against in the tournament. We’re going to take tonight and celebrate and take Wednesday off. We’re going to start worrying about what we’re getting into Thursday. I want to enjoy this moment with my team, community, school and my family. We know it’s a grizzly bear and we’ll play tough teams, but we’ll worry about that Thursday.”