When she stepped onto the floor of the Acadome at Alabama State for the Class 1A Central Regional, every single one of her teammates and coaches knew exactly what to expect from her. All season long, her contributions have been consistent and invaluable. It was those outside of the Sunshine locker room that probably didn’t see Johnquesha Childs coming.

For Johnquesha Childs, Monday’s 16-point, 10-rebound performance against Donoho was more than a year in the making. It was this time last year — on the same floor and against the same team in the same round — that Childs, donning her Sunshine uniform and warm-ups, watched her teammates put together an eight-point win to move to the regional finals against Akron.

Childs had been hoping to recover from an ACL tear in time to get back on the floor for the Lady Tigers’ regional run. She did not and was relegated to a spectator’s role her entire junior season.

Monday night in the Acadome, Childs looked like she had arrived. Her outside shots fell. Her inside shots found their way in. She led the team in rebounding. And despite wearing a brace on each of her knees, she was played the game fearlessly.

It is that kind of performance the Lady Tigers will need if they are to get to Birmingham and advance further than they did a season ago. The biggest problem Sunshine faced then was a lack of a scoring complement for Shafontaye Myers. That is no longer a concern for head coach Phillip Wagner, as Childs is just a hair off of averaging a double-double on the season and has scored above single digits for five consecutive games.

If she maintains that sort of consistency, there is a strong chance that a state championship could erase the memory of her lost season.