Red-hot Great Crossing outlasts Clark to snap Cardinals’ 55-game home win streak
To say No. 2 Great Crossing had been on a roll of late would be a massive understatement.
Winners of 14 straight, including 11 since the installation of sophomore LJ Holman at point guard, the Warhawks pummeled their last three opponents by an average of 34 points with Holman missing only one shot and scoring 50 points during that stretch.
But Wednesday, Great Crossing traveled to Winchester to take on No. 7 George Rogers Clark in a game shown live on Lexington television. The Cardinals boasted a record of 72-1 at home since opening their sparkling GRC Arena in 2020 and had won 55 straight there since 2021.
So, no, the Warhawks (23-4) didn’t get the rout they’d recently become accustomed to, but they might have gotten the kind of win they needed.
“Hey, they won 55 in a row here, right? Did you think it was going to be easy?” Great Crossing coach Steve Page said with a laugh after his team pulled away late to a 55-43 victory. “We didn’t shoot it very well at all in the first half. But for us, it’s about moving the ball. You know, in the first half we only had four assists and we took a lot of bad shots. In the second half, we went 12-of-21 with eight assists.”
Five of those assists came in the last five minutes as Great Crossing closed out the game with a 14-2 run after being tied 25-25 at halftime and 37-37 at the end of three quarters.
Malachi Moreno, Great Crossing’s 6-foot-10 Kentucky signee, dished out four assists to go with his game-high 22 points, 20 rebounds and five blocks. Vince Dawson added 10 points and 11 rebounds. Gage Richardson scored seven and notched two of his three assists during the fourth-quarter run.
“This late in the season having a game like that I think really prepares us for tournament time when it really matters,” Moreno said.
Clark’s only other loss in GRC Arena came to eventual 11th Region champion Madison Central in 2021. Coach Josh Cook took heart that the Cardinals (20-4) stood toe-to-toe with the defending 11th Region champs and one of the state’s elite teams for most of the game. Malachi Ashford led Clark with 13 points.
“Games like this, it was like a postseason game — neither team really shoots great but you’ve got to make your possessions count,” Cook said. “We played well. Did we play our best? No. But we’re headed in the right direction. … We’re giving ourselves a chance to be in the mix.”
Holman also figured in Great Crossing’s fourth-quarter run. He broke to the basket for easy layups on two Moreno passes down the stretch and finished with 11 points.
Perhaps it was not his best game, offensively, since being thrust into the point guard role in the wake of senior Junius Burrell’s abrupt departure from the team, but Page praised the effort.
“He’s now on film more against other people, so, he’s being played differently than probably he was before. He’ll figure it out,” Page said. “But still, 11 points and he had some big buckets late. He didn’t let the first half bother him and he defended (Ashford) great. (Ashford) was 5-for-15 from the field, so we can’t ask for anything more out of LJ, defensively.”
Holman acknowledged he had to up his game, but said he’s grown comfortable with his new role.
“I had to realize that I wasn’t really doing enough,” Holman said. “I had to watch more film. I had to work on my handle and a lot more work on my shot and making reads. I’d worked on my game and stuff like that, but I never got the game reps as a point guard. So my first two games, it was a little rough.”
Page had no doubts the sophomore could handle it.
“We knew what type of player he was. He would have played a lot more minutes for any other program last year, but he got to practice against us every single day, and that made him better, Page said. “He put his head down and grinded. … Nothing he’s done this year has surprised us.”
This story was originally published February 13, 2025 at 11:59 AM.
