Prattville Christian coach Jason Roberson has seen it many times in the past five years.

When his team is struggling and in desperate need of a lift, enter Coco Thomas.

On Tuesday night, the 5-foot-11 senior scored 20 points and pulled down 19 rebounds, helping the Panthers to a 52-37 victory over New Hope in the Class 4A state semifinals.

“Coco is a warrior,” Roberson said of his Shelton State signee. “I’ve been coaching her for five years. She played a little in eighth grade and started in the ninth. I’ve witnessed her being a warrior on many occasions. There have been times when, for whatever reason, many of our other players were struggling. In those situations, every single time Coco stepped up. She did today, too.”

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Prattville Christian (33-3) trailed only briefly at 3-0 but had trouble pulling away from New Hope (23-6). The Panthers led 24-16 at the half and 38-31 entering the final quarter. The Indians cut the deficit to 38-34 on a basket and free throw by Lauren Busbey with 7:01 left in the game.

But there was Thomas again. Her bank shot bumped the margin to 40-34 and sparked an 11-3 run to close the game. Thomas and 6-foot-2 Hannah Jones combined for 30 points and 33 rebounds.

“They are stellar,” New Hope coach Craig McGill said. “Coco is going to Shelton State, the best junior college in the state. Hannah is going to play volleyball at Memphis but could play college basketball if she wanted. It’s tough playing against two college players who are 6-2 and 5-11 and we don’t have anyone over 5-10. But I thought we fought. I’m at peace. We gave it everything we had. Somebody has to win, and somebody has to lose.”

Prattville Christian will play for its third straight title – and first in 4A – on Friday against Priceville. The Panthers won the last two state titles in 3A before moving up.

“We wanted to embrace the move to 4A,” Roberson said. “We wanted to make it something new and exciting. We battled all year, put in a ton of work. I think they’ve enjoyed playing in a new classification.”

Star of the game: It was clearly Thomas. She was 9-of-17 from the field and 2-of-3 from the foul line. Ten of her 19 rebounds were offensive.

Stat game: Prattville Christian – Ally Blankenship, normally a key defender on the team, turned offensive on Tuesday, scoring 12 points on four 3-pointers. Jones had 10 points and 14 rebounds. New Hope – Lauren Busbey had 13 points, five rebounds, four blocks and three steals. Kaylee Yarbrough followed with 12 points and Jada Bates had 10.

By the numbers: New Hope was just 8-of-38 from the field (21 percent) and 2-of-11 from 3 (18 percent). PCA was 19-of-55 from the field (34.5 percent) and 5-of-25 from 3-point range (20 percent). The Panthers dominated the boards, winning the rebounding battle 49-25 and outscoring the Indians 26-8 in the paint and 23-4 on second-chance points.

They said it:

“We take what other teams give us. It’s as simple as that. We trust all our players. If we are open, we are going to take the shots because we believe they will go in.” – Roberson on his team getting 17 3-point attempts from Blankenship and key player Avery Rogers taking just three shots in the game.

“The 1-3-1 defense they ran was super tough. We couldn’t run anything we normally run. We prepared for it for three days against the boys, but somehow those girls today played a little differently. Jada had a hard time seeing over it. She started attacking it in the second half, and that worked better. But it was my plan, and it was on me.” – McGill.

“Five years ago, when coach came in, he told me we were going to win the area. I was like, ‘What is this man thinking?’ He told us we were going to go to state. I was like, ‘Has he ever seen us before?’ I would have never thought we would have made it this far.” – Busbey.

Next up: Prattville Christian will play Priceville at 4 p.m. Friday for the state title.

“I think they are amazing,” Roberson said of his next opponent. “If you come out of a region with Good Hope and Deshler, you are probably the best team in 4A. We will go in as the underdog and see if we can hang with them. They are mighty good.”