It was a close game, but not close enough for the Pflugerville High boys basketball team to overcome the Anderson Trojans, as the Panthers fell 72-61 in the bi-district round of the playoffs Tuesday night.

While Pflugerville was first to score on the night, Anderson quickly grabbed the lead playing a very strong defense.

Staying in the game athletically, Pflugerville kept the pressure on offensively, however by the end of the first quarter Anderson was ahead 19-14.

Pflugerville’s Darian Bostic was able to score a 3-pointer in the first few seconds of the second quarter, as Anderson continued to crowd the basket forcing Pflugerville to shoot from the outside.

Not willing to give in just yet, Pflugerville added more defensive pressure to Anderson, with both teams turning over the ball.

Pflugerville was able to start gaining some momentum towards the end of the first half by playing more aggressively but it was not enough to overcome the Trojans as they ended the second quarter 41-34.

“It was all about our defense tonight,” Anderson head coach Leal Anderson said. “We knew that all year long we had to rebound and get the stops that we needed. We did just that.”

As Anderson came back from the half more determined to play more aggressive defense, Pflugerville struggled to maintain control of the ball. Towards the end of the third quarter, however, Anderson started to pull away from Pflugerville, gaining an eight point lead 55-47.

Anderson kept the pressure during the fourth quarter as they continued the domination, even hitting a 12-point lead over Pflugerville with just under six minutes left on the clock.

“To their credit, they came in and attacked us. They were the aggressor tonight,” Pflugerville head coach David Raigosa said. “They are long and coming into the game we knew it was going to cause us some problems.”

Unwilling to go quietly, Pflugerville finally hit their stride in the last few minutes of the game, closing the gap with a few scores. With 29 seconds left, Panther Napoleon Onyeje was able to get a final 3-pointer in. However it just wasn’t enough to rally the team to a win.

“They were the better team tonight,” Raigosa said. “We just have to focus on being better next season. When the lights come on in the playoffs, we only have 32 minutes to settle the game.”

Leading the Panthers in scoring was TJ Williams with 20 points while Onyeje scored 19 and Bostic scored nine. Justin Moss gained seven points while Darren Henderson nabbed two.

Hayden Graham scored 21 points for the Trojans while Rasmus Bach scored 20. John Gramlich and Alex Frame each scored 10 points while Chad Crawford scored four. Bakari Henderson grabbed three points and Chris Vineyard scored two.

Anderson will now go on to play Spring Westfield in the next round of playoffs.