JACKSONVILLE – The Spring Garden Lady Panthers have turned in some impressive Northeast Regional Tournament performances in the past, but Tuesday afternoon’s game against Talladega County Central has to rank among the top of its best defensive efforts.

The Lady Panthers held Talladega County Central scoreless the entire second half and cruised to a 59-15 victory.

The win secured Spring Garden’s 13th Northeast Regional final appearance. The fourth-ranked Lady Panthers (28-4) will seek their 10th Class 1A regional title when they take on No. 7 Winterboro (23-4) on Monday at 3 p.m.

“I don’t know if we’ve ever done that in a half,” Spring Garden coach Ricky Austin said of holding a team scoreless in a half. “I know we did it in a quarter before, but I don’t know about a half. I think our conditioning made a big difference there. It looked like they might have gotten a little tired and started having a little bit of trouble controlling the ball. We did an excellent job of closing out.”

“Coach Dana (Austin) and Coach Rat (Ricky Austin) have been on us about bringing our best every single game,” said Lady Panther senior guard Madison Sides, who led Spring Garden with 19 points, including four 3-pointers. She also had eight rebounds and four assists. “I think we’ve really taken that to heart and everybody is bringing their best game right now. We just knew if we were playing good defense, then we were doing a good job.”

The Lady Panthers also know if their trademark 3-pointers are falling – especially early – then things become that much easier. Spring Garden canned four treys in the first half and finished with eight in the game.

“At practice, we’ve been really pushing for who can make the first shot, and imagine ourselves making the first shot,” said junior guard Savannah Dempsey, who sank three treys and finished with 15 points, five rebounds and four assists. “Madison has been phenomenal the whole season, and I feel like with Tookie (Tykeah Rogers) being on the inside and them collapsing on her, then it makes us more open.”

Dempsey, Sides and freshman forward Payton McGinnis each had a trey in the first quarter, which helped give Spring Garden a 17-4 advantage after one. The Lady Panthers extended their advantage to 34-15 at halftime.

As bad as things were for TCC (14-13) in the first half, things got even worse in the second. The Lady Tigers were 0-for-17 shooting from the floor the final two quarters.

“We have a real young group, but we are not going to make excuses,” said TCC head coach Robert Duncan, who started a seventh grader, an eighth grader, two freshmen and a senior in the game. “We were out there trying to do the best that we could. You just have ups and downs like that when you have an inexperienced group.”

Sophomore Marlonda Pemberton and senior Savona Garrett led the Lady Tigers with four points apiece. Pemberton also grabbed seven rebounds.

Rogers added nine points, 13 boards and a pair of assists for Spring Garden.

Boys

Sacred Heart 94, Spring Garden 48

JACKSONVILLE – For a quarter, the Spring Garden Panthers gave top-ranked and defending Class 1A state champion Sacred Heart a tight game in the Northeast Regional semifinals at Jacksonville State University.

The Panthers trailed only by six points, but a 29-7 run by the Cardinals in the second quarter helped them earn a 94-48 victory.

Sacred Heart (26-8) advances to Monday’s regional final against Winterboro. Spring Garden’s season ends at 16-15.

“We played a great team, probably the best team in the state,” Austin said. “They’ve proven themselves against tough competition. They have a great team and great talent, but I’m proud of our kids. We battled. We showed up. We proved we could play with them for a quarter. I’m very proud of how we came out not scared, not in awe of this environment.”

Turnovers proved costly for the Panthers in the first half, particularly during a stretch in the second quarter. Spring Garden had 14 turnovers at the half, in which Sacred Heart built a 50-22 advantage.

“Once it gets rolling, it’s hard to stop,” Spring Garden sophomore point guard Riley Austin said. “It’s like a domino effect. Once one player does it, the rest of the team does it, and there’s not much you can do about it when it starts rolling.”

Fellow sophomore guard Dylan Rogers said in the second quarter “most of us were gassed.”

“We got tired. They picked up their defense and we started turning it over,” Rogers said.

Rogers led the Panthers with 15 points and three rebounds. Austin added 11 points, three rebounds and a pair of assists. Draevan Bowman finished with nine points, all on 3-pointers.

Kevion Nolan scored a game-high 37 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had four assists for the Cardinals. D.J. Heath added 25 points, five rebounds and four assists. Diante Wood had 11 points and four boards. Kavarri Ross finished with nine points and three assists.