The Pflugerville girls basketball team earned a trip to the 5A final four with a 54-42 Region IV final win over S.A. Jay on Saturday afternoon in San Antonio.   The Panthers will play at either 3:30 or 8:30 Friday at the Erwin Center.

Pflugerville girls are a win away from the State final four.  Panthers beat Harlingen South 57-41.  Pflugerville plays S.A. Jay saturday afternoon in the 5A region IV final.

Lake Travis boys advance to the 4A regional quarterfinals with a 77-66 win over Schertz Clemens.  Cavs will play district rival Killeen next Wednesday.

The Pflugerville Panther boys basketball team won in dramatic fashion over San Antonio Clark in 5A Area Playoff action friday night at Hays High School.  Jarrell Turner  hit a fadeaway jumper at the buzzer to give Pflugerville the 54-52 victory.

In the 2nd game at Hays,  the Reagan boys came back from an 8 point halftime deficit to knock off Alamo Heights 60-55 to advance to the 4A regional quarterfinals.

In Girls 3A regional semifinals Burnet lost to Lubbock Estacado 65-50 out in Lubbock.

Longhorn baseball team beat Penn State 9-2 in the first game of their four game weekend series.  Connor Rowe hit his first homerun as a Longhorn Chance Ruffin struck out nine in six innings to pick up the win.

They will play a doubleheader on Saturday, first game is at 12:30, that one scheduled for a seven innings and the 2nd game scheduled for nine innings.

Former Longhorn Justin Leonard has advanced to the quarterfinals at the Accenture Match Play Championships outside Tucson.  Leonard made a short par putt to close out England’s Oliver Wilson on the match’s 19th hole.   Leonard will face Ross Fisher on Saturday morning.  Phil Mickelson was another big name casualty, losing to Stewart Cink 1 up.

Longhorns lead Penn State 8-1 in the 6th inning at UFCU Disch-Falk field.  Sophomore Conner Rowe (Georgetown H.S.)  hit a 2-run homer to spark a seven run 4th inning to break up a 1-1 tie.   Leftfielder Tant Sheppard added a bases loaded 3-run double in 4th as well.  Sophomore Chance Ruffin is in line for the win as he works in the 6th inning.  The Longhorns are 5-0 on the season.

No way it was supposed to be this close.  Texas survived a scare from Texas Tech Wednesday night at the Erwin Center 87-81.  Texas trailed by as many as nine in the first half where Tech’s 43 points at the break was only six fewer than they scored the entire game in Lubbock back in January.

In the end Texas was able to pull away thanks to a spark from Dogus Balbay to start the 2nd half.  A.J. Abrams led the way with 23 points while Damion James added 20 points.  After giving up 51 free throws to Texas A&M on saturday that led to Tech coach Pat Knights suspension after criticizing the refs, Texas shot 43 free throws on Wednesday.    That was the difference as Texas outscored Tech 31-15 at the line.

The Longhorns improve to 19-8 and 8-5 in the Big 12.  Texas is now alone in 4th place in the conference after Missouri’s win over Kansas St.

Horns play at Oklahoma State on Saturday before their home finale Monday against Baylor.

Kevin Durant had his #35 retired at halftime.  You can see some of his pre-game comments about being back in Austin if click back to the sports page.

In the most anticipated Wednesday round of golf in history Tiger Woods stepped up to the 1st tee at the WGC-Match Play and ripped his tee shot down the middle, 2nd shot to within 6 feet and drained the birdie putt, match over!  After 8 months off following reconstructive knee surgery Woods looked sharp early but did make 3 bogeys to go with a couple of eagles on his way to a 3&2 win over Aussie Brendan Jones.   Don’t forget to catch Saturday and Sunday action on KXAN and NBC.

As I watched the Texas-OU basketball game at the Erwin Center Saturday night, one of the more interesting storylines of the game seemed to be the leadership role on the court taken by one Dexter Pittman.

“Sexy Dexy,” as he is called by his teammates and by some brave members of the media, is known for many attributes on this team. For one, his amazing size, which has shrunk over the years, and how he maintains his discipline to lose more weight… Two, his comments about basketball and life in general, which always make me grin from ear to ear, (he one time said, “I don’t think my dad thinks I listen to him because when he talks to me, all I say is ‘yes sir,’ and ‘no sir,’ but I promise I’m listening,”)… And three, his ability to make a difference in games in the paint, of course.

Pittman seems very genuine. He always seems to have a good and positive attitude and has an amazing knack to put a smile on anyone’s face who talks about him or to him. And people listen to him, too.

In the last 8 minutes of the second half, while A.J. Abrams was shooting 3-pointers, Pittman was rallying his teammates after fouls, huddling them together and encouraging them. He turned to the crowd and asked for noise when the Sooners were shooting free throws. He tried to be as much of a defensive force as possible while trying to not get too many fouls.

I thought these accomplishments alone were impressive, until I found out something else.

Pittman’s grandmother died earlier this week, and he missed practice on Friday to be with his family. Rick Barnes said he got back in time for the game, and was very impressed with his composure during a tough time.

For anyone who has lost a relative they’re close with, that’s not an easy time. To then play one of the biggest games of your career the next day I would imagine would add to the emotional toll. But Pittman handled it gracefully and executed his gameplan with dilligence, and at the same time, inspired those around him.

Mike Leach will keep his passing-pirate act in Lubbock.  Leach agreed to a contract extension on Thursday afternoon after a long and ugly negotiation.    Leach has led Tech to 76 wins and 9 Bowl games in his 9 years at Texas Tech.  There was a report that the deal was done after Leach met face to face with Chancellor Kent Hance and without his agents or Athletic Director Gerald Myers.