The No. 5 Cardinals used defense, defense and more defense to grind out a 67-47 win Thursday night in their Cardinal Gym opener.

"I am proud of our kids and excited to see what the rest of the season holds for us," said first-year Cardinal coach Greg Heiar after the win. "I loved the energy in the building tonight. We plan to give our great fans plenty to cheer about this season."

Now 2-0, the Cardinals take to the road where they will play seven games before playing at home again on Saturday, Dec. 7 against Tyler at 4 p.m. Next up is the East/West Challenge next weekend in Plano. The Cardinals play Clarendon at 6 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 15, and Western Texas at 6 p.m. the following day.

Grayson, 1-2, found itself looking up at a 7-0 Garrett Nuckolls-created deficit. The former Bullard High School standout was the Cardinal offense in the quick start on his way to a 22-point performance. Nuckolls, one of just two active players returning from last season, hit a pair of three pointers and capped his performance with four straight free throws late in the game after Grayson's  7-0 Nicholas Hunter picked up two technical and an automatic ejection.

The Cardinals built a 26-11 by the 7:57 mark before Grayson came storming back. At halftime, the Cardinals were up 30-24.

In the second half, Mouhamed Mbaye, gave the Cardinals quality minutes on both ends of the floor. He finished with10 points and had a key blocked shot late in the contest.

M.J. Marlow was the Cardinals' only other double-digit scorer with 11 points.