Three quarters of stingy defense was enough for the Chaps to stay undefeated at home and earn a 71-58 win over the Pflugerville Panthers.

Typically a strong third quarter team, the Chaps struggled out of halftime and allowed the Panthers to close a 17-point deficit to just seven. But Westlake would gain control once again towards the end of the quarter and went into the fourth quarter with an 11-point lead.

“I thought the team did a good job, coming off just one day of practice, of keeping their composure and getting the ball inside,” head coach Robert Lucero said. “We have to take the three-point line away better because that’s what kept them in the game, but for the most part, I felt we were in control.”

It was another big outing for junior Will Baker, who won the Anderson Classic MVP award last week. He finished with 18 points, joint-highest for the Chaps with senior Brock Cunningham, and also had 15 rebounds.

Lucero said Baker has done a great job developing this past year and the team has changed its offense to reflect that by relying more on post-ups.

“There’s not many bigs anymore that you can just throw to on the block and you can play through the post, so we’re playing through the post more and it’s a little bit different for everyone on the floor,” Lucero said. “Everybody has to learn a different style at times. I think Brock’s done a really good job getting some hi-lo action with Will and all of our guards on the wings are trying to find him.”

The partnership between Baker and Cunningham was crucial for the Chaps tonight as they combined for 36 points and 22 rebounds.

“We complement each other great, and we’re always looking for each other, so we just have to keep it up,” Baker said. “That’s what’s going to get us far.”

The size difference was difficult to overcome for the Panthers as they were outrebounded by double digits. They also struggled to find a rhythm offensively, but Caleb Asberry, Jorel Huggins and Darius Watford all scored in the double digits to keep the game close.

But head coach David Raigosa says the defensive side of the ball has been their main weakness so far.   

“We have to get better defensively,” he said. “Coming out of our last two games in San Antonio this weekend where we played Silsbee and Dallas Kimball, we felt that our defensive side was where we lost the games. We felt like we scored enough points, so going into our own tournament, we have to get better on that side of the ball.”

Pflugerville have played a tough schedule so far featuring the likes of Dallas Kimball and Silsbee, No. 25 in 5A and No. 1 in 4A respectively. It’s led to a record of 5-6, but Raigosa said it has also prepared them better for the District season.

“We say this every year — when we go into District, there isn’t anything we haven’t seen,” he said. “We go out, and this is one of the first local games we’ve played. That’s what we want to do. Records are important, but we want to get ready for District play and matches like this, on the road, are going to challenge us.”

Westlake has a big weekend ahead of them in Houston at the Cy-Hoops Invitational which will take place Dec. 7-9. The tournament could put the Chaps in a rematch with Denton Guyer and have their first matchup against the No. 1 team in the state, Cy-Falls.  

Cunningham said preventing turnovers and better fast break defense will be two things the team will need to do if they want to beat those teams.

“Cy-Falls is who we’re gunning for right now, and if we can get a game against those guys, I think that will really show what we’re made of,” he said. “And we need a game against a really good team.”