The Pflugerville Panthers broke a 43-43 third quarter tie and pulled away for a 78-62 win over Leander in their season opener last Tuesday.

Deon Mitchell led the way for the Panthers, dropping in a game-high 24 points. Demetrius Smith chipped in 16 points and Jarrell Turner added 10. The game was a total team-effort though as 10 Panthers scored and every Pflugerville player saw action. Still, Pflugerville coach Mike Murphy saw room for improvement.

“I thought we fouled too much,” he said. “A lot of it was our hustle, but we have to learn how the game is going to be called early and adjust to it. We didn’t do a good job of that.”

The Panthers did do a good job of closing. Mitchell knocked down a basket midway through the third quarter to propel Pflugerville on a 13-2 run to close the quarter. Along the way Smith buried a three and Mitchell turned a traditional three-point play after making one of his three steals in the game. Turner knocked down another three in the waning seconds of the quarter to put the Panthers up by 11.

 “We were more patient,” Murphy said of his team’s surge. “We were rushing things in the first half, mainly because the game had no flow. Once we got in a flow we were patient and shot the ball better.”

 Pflugerville continued to apply pressure to start the fourth quarter. Mitchell and Smith, with scoring help from Zach Beeler (six points, six rebounds) and Sultan Kamara (five points) led the Panthers on an 18-4 run, putting the game out of reach of the hungry Lions.

Leander, led by the dynamic duo of Marketh Biscoe (21 points) and Jean Maurice Blanchard (15 points) stayed close to the Panthers for the entire first half and even had a 16-15 lead after one quarter of play. Mitchell scored the first basket of the game and after Smith had a steal and a dunk, Pflugerville was up 8-4. The Panthers’ lead grew to 14-9 before the Lions stormed back, taking a 15-14 advantage before Biscoe dropped in a free throw to stake them to a one-point lead after one quarter of play.

The Lions lead was short-lived as Smith dropped in two baskets to start the second quarter and give the advantage back to the Panthers. Blanchard scored five straight points to pull Leander to within one at 22-21, but Pflugerville responded with a 9-1 surge. Mitchell knocked down a three to get things started and Pierce Simpson and Beeler continued the scoring, putting the Panthers up 31-22. Pflugerville led 33-26 after Kentric Ward scored off a pass from Simpson, but the Lions rallied with six points and trailed 37-32 at halftime.