Rapid Reaction: Garrard County at George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark played host to 12th region foe Garrard County in Winchester on Saturday night. The game had a sluggish start a big GRC run, a questionable ejection and the longest fourth quarter I’ve ever endured. Here are some takeaways from the 83-62 GRC win.
1. When all of GRC’s weapons are clicking, they are very good. Four of the Cardinals scored double figures. Jordan Graham had 14, Brennan Canada 12, Ryan Cooper 11 and Will Philpot added 10. All together, 12 GRC players scored in the game. That sort of balance isn’t seen frequently, even in a rout like this game ended up being.
2. Garrard’s Braden Sebastian has a chance to be really good. The 6’3 sophomore is already averaging almost 17 points per game on 52% shooting. Braden is also pulling down over 8 rebounds per game. Sebastian’s natural position is probably point or combo guard but he’s forced to play all 5 positions for the Lions due to their overall lack of size. The sophomore is certainly one to keep up with in the 2020 class.
2018 GRC F Will Philpot3. GRC is in position to be good for several years. Graham and Canada were the two leading scorers for Coach Josh Cook’s team and they’re only juniors. Sophomore KJ Rucker is a very shifty point guard who has a nice shot from 3 in addition to being able to beat his defender off the dribble. Freshman Jared Wellman averaged 17 points per game as an 8th grader at Lawrence County last season and is now a role player for the Cards. The future is bright for the Cards.
4. The Officials had an unnecessarily quick trigger when ejecting Garrard’s Charles Jones. The Junior big man was called for a technical for talking with Will Philpot after being called for a foul on a Philpot lay-in. The second technical came from a second referee who called Jones for shoving Philpot. The two techs were called within 5 seconds of each other. The refs should have conversed and made it one technical instead of ejecting Jones. In this instance, common sense did not prevail and Jones will have to serve the mandatory two game suspension that comes with a player ejection.