CALIFORNIA, Mo. - The Fulton Hornets outscored the Boonville Pirates 25-16 in the fourth quarter to collect third place at the 83rd-annual California Tournament with a 71-62 victory Thursday night.
Fulton (8-3) has won six of its last eight games and has prevailed in two of its three meetings with its North Central Missouri Conference rival this season.
The Hornets fell behind 18-13 after the first quarter and trailed 32-28 at halftime. Fulton outscored Boonville 18-14 in the third quarter to tie the game at 46-all entering the pivotal last 8 minutes.
"If two games in two nights is hard, three games in three nights is even harder. We challenged our guys to show us who they were, and they went out and answered the bell," Hornets head coach Justin Gilmore said. "They gave everything they had. They showed how much heart and guts they had tonight.
"We got down early in this one and just continued to fight back all night."
Junior forward Cameron Vaughn topped the Hornets with 19 points. Junior guard Makygh Galbreath produced 18 points and senior forward Justin Adams tallied 14.
Vaughn and Adams were both named to the all-tournament.
"I'd take these 14 guys over any team in the state," Gilmore said. "They're a great group to be around. They don't ever get down and their attitudes and fun-loving spirits are infectious."
Senior guard Riley Lang paced Boonville with a game-high 23 points and senior guard Alec Adair followed with 20.
The Hornets were coming off a 75-56 loss to the unbeaten Southern Boone Eagles, ranked No. 2 in Class 3, late Wednesday night.
Southern Boone was in front 20-18 after the first quarter and stretched its advantage to 30-23 at halftime. The Eagles carried a 48-38 edge into the fourth quarter and pulled away by outscoring Fulton 27-18.
Vaughn logged a game-high 19 points and 13 rebounds for the Hornets.
Spencer Taggart led Southern Boone with 17 points and Maguire Scheer came up with 16.
"It's never easy playing on back-to-back nights, but I thought our guys came out and fought extremely hard against a very good team," Gilmore said. "We played a lot of different guys and I thought every single one of them left everything they had on the court. It's never fun losing a game, but I was proud of our guys' effort and fight."
Fulton plays a non-conference game at Eldon at 5 p.m. Monday.