The Pflugerville Panthers may not have quite run away with District 25-5A yet, but they certainly have pulled away from the pack. The Panthers kept their district record a perfect 4-0 with a 72-25 thrashing of Austin High last Tuesday.

Led by Curtiesha Woods, who came off the bench to score a team-high 17 points, Christie Mooney (12 points) and 10 points each from Itiana Taylor and Adesuwa Ebomwonyi, Pflugerville pulled away from the Maroons in the first quarter and never looked back.

“As always we are stressing defense,” Panther coach Nancy Walling said. “Our defense leads to our offense. We were trying to do a better job of matching up with them. The people in the back were getting steals and we had good ball pressure.”

The Panthers had plenty of steals in the first quarter as they forced 14 Austin turnovers. Mooney, Ebomwonyi (seven rebounds, four steals) and Taylor did all the offensive damage as 23 points came in a 9-0 run and a 14-0 run that resulted in a 23-5 Pflugerville lead after a quarter of play.

After the Maroons got a bucket to start the second quarter the Panthers answered with an 8-0 run. DyMesheon Hyder, Raveen Burton and Woods all scored in the run, pushing Pflugerville’s lead to 31-7. Ari Booth knocked down a three and Woods added two more points to put the Panthers up 36-16 at intermission.

“I told them they try to need to relax when they’re on the court,” Walling said. “We’ve been working on the mental aspect. They just need to relax and play their game and try and focus on that.”

The Pflugerville players must have been very relaxed in the third quarter as they turned a 20-point lead into a 40-point advantage. The Panthers forced 10 Maroon turnovers and allowed just one point while putting up 21 of their own. Mooney sparked a 15-0 run to close the quarter that ended when Jasmyn Booker beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer to give Pflugerville its 40-point lead and send them on to the win.