Rogers still finished that game with 21 points and 12 rebounds, but early foul trouble made her pretty much a non-factor in the Lady Panthers’ seven-point, season-ending loss.

Almost a year later, Rogers got a second chance against Skyline. This time, a regional berth was on the line, and once again, foul trouble struck the junior center early, relegating her to the bench for much of the second quarter.

But when she re-entered the game in the second half, Rogers made sure she made her presence felt much more. She finished 9-of-11 from the floor, with 15 of her game-high 21 points in the second half in leading fourth-ranked Spring Garden to a 45-28 victory.

The win also marked the 30th of the season for the fourth-ranked Lady Panthers (30-2).

“We’ve had some very special teams win 30 games here,” said Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin, referring to the Lady Panthers’ state championship teams. “If this team wants to put themselves in that conversation with those other teams who have won 30, it’s up to them. Tonight was a great lesson for us.”

Rogers also finished with 13 rebounds for the Lady Panthers, who advance to Jacksonville State University to face Talladega County Central (23-8) in the Class 1A Northeast Regional semifinals on Friday at 6 p.m.

“I didn’t feel like she had those numbers, but when I look back on it, she was big in the second half,” Austin said. “Her teammates did a great job of getting her the ball and she went to work. She made up for putting us in the hole a little bit.”

Rogers said she took her coach’s benching to heart.

“I think after he sat me down, I kind of figured out that if I’m not in the game, there’s no way we were going to stick it out,” she said. “They were coming back when they saw I was on the bench. After halftime, he talked to me and told me ‘If we’re going to win this game, then you’re going to have to be on the court.’ I just toughed it out.”

Skyline (14-9) proved to be tough competition for the Lady Panthers despite not having much offense. The 10th-ranked Lady Vikings trailed 8-6 at the end of the first quarter and 12-10 with just over a minute to go before halftime.

Senior guard Darian Gaines scored the Lady Panthers’ final five points before halftime on a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer with 33 seconds left to stretch Spring Garden’s lead to 17-10. It was the only made 3-pointer by the Lady Panthers. They were 1-of-13 shooting from beyond the arc for the game.

A trey by Skyline’s Caity Ledwell just before halftime cut the Lady Panther advantage to 17-13 as both teams headed to the locker room.

Spring Garden stretched its lead out to 10 at 29-19 at the end of the third quarter behind Rogers’ eight points in the quarter. The Lady Panthers went on a 16-9 run in the fourth for the final.

“We had 12 points from the field. That was the game,” said Skyline coach Ronnie McCarver, whose team was averaging 52 points per game this season. “We could never get in a rhythm because of the officials. The officials took us out of the ball game from the start.”

Skyline finished 4-of-7 from the free-throw line. Spring Garden went 18-of-25 from the charity stripe.

“Coach Rat (Austin) told us throughout our practices this weekend that keeping the ball in front of us and our half-court defense was what would win this game for us,” Gaines said. “He said ‘I know we’re probably not going to be making shots. We can’t always count on making shots, but we can count on defense.’ We were just 1-of-13 behind the 3-point line, but our defense helped with that because we kept them from scoring too.”

Austin said he was proud of how well the Lady Panthers played defensively.

“That’s a good scoring team. They really spread you out,” Austin said. “Coach McCarver does a great job isolating and getting what he needs. We pride ourselves on defense, and I thought for the most part we were good, but when we had a breakdown, they took advantage of it for three quarters. That kept them in the game.”

Ledwell led the Lady Vikings with 12 points. Sydney Ivey and Madison Kennamer both finished with five points.

Gaines added 11 points, five assists and a steal for Spring Garden. Madison Sides contributed seven points, three rebounds and three assists. Payton McGinnis finished with six points and seven boards.

With Skyline now behind them, Austin said he’s looking forward to taking his young team to this year’s Northeast Regionals.

“To me, taking this group is just as exciting as the first time we ever went down there,” he said. “This was a big game tonight. This was a hard game. We knew it was coming. I feel like this was the hardest sub-region game we’ve had here.”