O'NEILL - There may not be a high school basketball game with more incongruous halves than in O'Neill on Friday.

The O'Neill boys' basketball team fell behind by as much as 18 in the first half, before roaring back to shock Boone Central 51-49.

The Eagles struggled with the Cardinals' length in the first half, finding little offensive rhythm and shooting just 4-of-22 from the field over the first 16 minutes.

But O'Neill found their flow in the second half, bolstered by a 21-point second-half performance by Drew Morrow, the Eagles chipped away at the Cardinal lead, eventually taking the lead on a Morrow three early in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Boone Central saw their comfort level offensively fade over the final two quarters. After shooting 15-of-27 in the first half (including an impressive 13/18 on 2-point shots), the Cardinals were held to 5-of-21 shooting in the second half.

The win for O'Neill was their fourth straight this season, and their fourth straight overall over Boone Central.

GAME SUMMARY

BOONE CENTRAL (7-4) - 18 16 5 10 - 49

O'NEILL (6-4) - 8 9 20 14 - 51

TEAM STATS:

O'NEILL

- FG: 16/49 (32.6%)

- 3P: 2/14 (14.3%)

- FT: 17/19 (89.5%)

BOONE CENTRAL

- FG: 20/48 (41.7%)

- 3P: 4/16 (25%)

- FT: 5/11 (45.5%)

INDIVIDUAL STATS:

O'NEILL

- Turner Heiss: 12 pts, 6 rebs

- Ryder Pokorny: 3 pts, 2 rebs

- Porter Mathews: 1 pt, 6 rebs

- Brady Eichelberger: 2 pts, 3 rebs

- Drew Morrow: 29 pts, 4 rebs

- Grant Dusatko: 2 pts, 2 rebs

BOONE CENTRAL

- Jaxon Lipker: 5 pts, 2 rebs

- Connor Christo: 14 pts, 4 rebs

- Parker Borer: 7 pts, 2 rebs

- Kolton Rasmussen: 5 pts, 1 reb

- Austin Wiese: 2 pts, 9 rebs

- Ben Reilly: 6 pts, 5 rebs

- Brant Benes: 3 pts, 2 rebs

- Trent Patzel: 7 pts, 3 rebs