HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL
Georgetown girls hit final shot to beat Pflugerville 33-31
Game-high scorer sinks winning shot just before buzzer.
By Butch Hart
AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Saturday, January 22, 2005
PFLUGERVILLE — Leah Starr's turnaround jumper with nine-tenths of a second to play in the game led Georgetown to a 33-31 victory over defending District 15-5A champion Pflugerville on Friday night.
The road victory all but ensured the Eagles (24-6, 9-0) of their 15th straight playoff berth. The loss was the fourth in eight games for the formerly state-ranked Panthers (23-6, 5-5), who need to win their remaining district games to make the playoffs.
The 6-foot-2-inch Starr led all scorers with 11 points and also grabbed seven rebounds. Devin Sewell and Kathryn Briggs each had eight points for the Eagles and Erin Dixon had eight points and eight rebounds for Pflugerville.
Pflugerville led 18-17 at halftime, taking advantage of 12 turnovers by Georgetown.
The Eagles staged a 9-0 scoring run to open the third quarter, with Starr collecting six of the nine points. The Georgetown defense and cold shooting by Pflugerville left the Panthers scoreless after 7 1/2 minutes of the period.
The drought ended on a three-pointer by Dixon with 30 seconds to go, Pflugerville's only points in the period.
Down 29-21, the Panthers reeled off a 7-0 run to open the fourth quarter. Georgetown went ahead 31-28 when Briggs hit a pair of free throws with 2:20 to play.
Georgetown then held the ball for nearly two minutes, but a missed free throw was rebounded by Dixon and the Panthers got the ball to Tiffany Turner, who swished a three-pointer to tie the game with 18.2 seconds to go. The Eagles then came upcourt and worked the ball to Starr, who nailed the game-winning shot.