HAYS COUNTY — Anthony Sierras looked a bit dazed in the hallway outside of Liberty Hill’s locker room at Hays High School Tuesday. The Panthers’ forward ended his senior season with a brilliant game in his team’s 49-34 loss to San Antonio Veterans Memorial in a Class 5A Region IV quarterfinal contest, but the finality of the moment proved hard to accept.

“I had a lot of fun this season,” said the 6-foot-3 Sierras, who scored a team-high 17 points against a physical Veterans Memorial defense. “But I wasn’t ready for it to end. I think we did a good job of building on what we did last year, and we won district and all that, but this is not where we wanted to be.”

Sierras’ quick statement on the state of Liberty Hill’s program is as accurate as one of his jumpers. The Panthers (30-7), in just their second season as a Class 5A program, won the District 25-5A title and reached the third round of the playoffs for the fourth time in the past five years. The team will miss players such as Sierras, 6-5 forward Walker Weems and scrappy guard Zane Lauper next season, but the squad looks in good hands with a strong core of returners and a deep subvarsity program as well as the steady guidance of longtime coach Barry Boren.

But that bright future didn’t ease the disappointment for Sierras, who moved to Liberty Hill from California prior to his junior season. Sierras doesn’t plan on playing college ball, although his length, athleticism and shooting touch would prove a good fit for a lot of programs at the next level. The loss to Veterans Memorial may have been his final game, much to the chagrin of his coach.

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“Anthony was a gift to us last year,” Boren said. “We were delighted that we had a full offseason with him, and he took what he did last year and just built on it. He’s really a special player and a special young man.”

Veterans Memorial (31-5) focused its defensive efforts on slowing Sierras and preventing the Panthers from feeding the ball into Weems and Gunter Daniels in the paint, said Veterans Memorial coach Steven Perez. Liberty Hill shot just 34% from the floor while scoring a season-low in points and didn’t make its first 3-pointer until Daniels nailed a trey late in the third period.

Considering that virtually every player on a Liberty Hill team that averaged 66.8 points a game this season draws cries of “Shooter!” from opposing team’s assistants, Perez doled out plenty of praise to his defense.

‘We knew that they have two really good scorers inside, and they had good shooters on the outside,” Perez said. “We tried to make it difficult to get the ball inside, and we got out to their shooters. The kids did a good job of that tonight.”

Veterans Memorial continues its first playoff run in the program’s five-year history, and Boren could only credit the Patriots’ efforts while praising his team’s best showing in two seasons in Class 5A.

“They were physical, and the referees let the game be physical,” he said. “Honestly, we just didn’t match that physicality. They were letting us play, and on nights like this, it’s a street fight.

“We didn’t shoot well, but they had something to do with that. They played well, and they’re advancing. Credit to them. We’re disappointed but not devastated. A lot of good things happened to us this year.”

Boys basketball: Playoff results and schedule

Regional quarterfinal results

Class 6A

Class 5A

Class 4A

LBJ 61, Waco La Vega 47

Class 3A

SA Cole 78, Blanco 41

Regional semifinal schedule: Friday

Class 6A

Westlake vs. SA Warren, 7 p.m., Northside ISD Sports Gym, San Antonio

Class 5A

Weiss vs. Beaumont United, 7:30 p.m., Campbell Center, Aldine

Class 4A

LBJ vs Houston Washington, 5:30 p.m., Panther Activity Center, Lufkin