After Georgetown played them to a standstill for one quarter, the Pflugerville High girls basketball team pulled away with a 17-4 run through the second quarter en route to a district championship clinching 52-30 victory at Panther Gym on Friday.

“It feels great,” Panther coach Nancy Walling said of her team’s district championship. “Anytime you are able to win a district championship means a lot to not only the team getting ready for playoffs but to the continued success of the girls’ basketball program.”

On senior night, it was seniors Jasmyn Booker and Ari Booth who sparked the Pflugerville offense, each putting in 13 points. The pair combined to hit six 3-pointers in the game with four of those shots coming in the Panthers’ strong second quarter. With the victory, Pflugerville improves to 11-0 in district and 36-0 on the season.

Neither team had much going for them offensively in the early going. The first basket of the game did not come until Diana Omozee grabbed an offensive rebound and scored on the put-back. Booth followed the basket with a pair of treys and the Panthers led 8-3. Pflugerville’s lead was 11-5 after Brenisha Payne knocked down a three, but the Eagles showed they were proficient with the long ball as well, closing the quarter with three’s from Katie Youngblood and Emily Johnson to tie the game at 11-11.

Booth and Booker hit back-to-back three’s to start the second, putting the Panthers up 17-11. Pflugerville’s defense stepped up in the second quarter as well, forcing eight turnovers and holding the Eagles without a field goal for the first sevenminutes and 40 seconds of the frame. Georgetown finally got a basket at the 20-second mark when Lorrie Santoy scored, but the Eagles were in a 28-15 hole they were not going to extract themselves from.

The two teams played to an 8-8 standstill in the third quarter, then the Panthers finished things off with a 16-point fourth quarter, sealing the victory and the district title in the process. As her team prepares for the second season, Walling is pleased with the way they are playing.

“The girls are in a good spot because they are one of the most focused teams we’ve ever had,” she said. “The girls understand that they have to take it one game at a time and that they have to continue to improve with every game and practice. They’ve worked too long and hard to take any game or practice for granted. I’m not saying that they’re perfect, we do, at times, have to stop and remind them what their goals are and what they need to do to achieve it.”