It came at no surprise when Neal Monson broke out in the second quarter of the Waterford boys' basketball team's 54-41 win over Rowland Hall on Wednesday night. If he wasn't directing traffic, he was blocking shots. If he wasn't slamming down a dunk -- he had two on the night -- he was pulling down rebounds on both ends of the court.

In every regard, it was just business as usual for the Ravens' 6-foot-10 Utah commit.

But with Waterford still looking to recover from a two-game skid last week, the win was anything but ordinary.

Both teams were sluggish from the start, with the Ravens taking a narrow 8-6 lead after one quarter By the half, the Winged Lions were still within striking distance, trailing 21-12.

After the break, the Ravens broke loose with a 9-0 run, prompting Rowland Hall coach Shawn MacQueen to sub out his entire lineup in an effort to patch up a ballooning deficit. But the Ravens kept rolling and took a 37-17 lead into the final quarter.

"We just started to move things around. We found our shooters. We found our big man," Waterford coach Reid Monson said.

With Monson on the bench in the fourth quarter, the Winged Lions picked up some steam. Johnny Bebbington scooped up two easy layups within 30 seconds as the Winged Lions rallied to cut a 20-point lead to just 10 points with 2:38 remaining in the game. Wesley Austin aided that effort, scoring all seven of his points in the final quarter.

With the game back within striking distance, Rowland Hall opted to foul, forcing the Ravens to earn their points from the foul line while the Winged Lions tried to play catch-up from behind the arc.