SEATTLE — There were a few days earlier this week when it looked like Regina Rogers might not make it to the reunion. Heck, there were moments when she didn’t even look like she was going to make it to the end of Thursday’s game against USC.
But after a bout with a flu-like virus, the University of Washington sophomore is still on her feet and ready to face her former team.
“It’s always fun to play your old teammates,” Rogers said earlier this week, a few days before the Huskies were to take the court for today’s game against UCLA in a women’s basketball team at Hec Edmondson Pavilion.
A former Washington state player of the year at Chief Sealth High School, Rogers left UCLA after one season because she wanted to get closer to home. She said there were no hard feelings when she left, adding that she still talks to former roommate Darxia Morris and fellow Chief Sealth graduate Christina Nzekwe on the phone.
Reached last month in Los Angeles, Nzekwe said she was surprised that Rogers decided to transfer but was not bitter.
As for facing Rogers as an opponent after playing alongside her in high school and one year of college, Nzekwe said: “It’ll be a little different. She’ll bring a lot of intensity; she’s going to play hard.”
But Rogers might not 100 percent. She sat out extensive practice time during the week because of illness and was seen vomiting in a garbage can a few feet from the Huskies’ bench during the first half of UW’s loss to USC on Thursday night
Curiously, Rogers played a season-high 25 minutes in that game. She was diving on the floor for loose balls in the second half and ended up scoring eight points in the loss.
Through 17 games, Rogers is the second-leading scorer (7.5 points per game) and rebounder (4.6 per game) for the Huskies (8-9 overall, 3-4 in the Pac-10). She has helped turn around a program that won just eight games while she sat out under NCAA transfer rules last season, giving UW a strong inside presence.
But health has played a part in Rogers being limited to just about 17 minutes per game. She said that she’s still trying to work herself back into shape after a long bout with pneumonia last spring. Rogers also has a hard time shaking common illnesses like the cold and the flu because of an immune system that was affected by her premature birth. She claims that the weather in Los Angeles affected her breathing, which was another reason for the transfer.
But when she is on the floor, Rogers can be a force.
“There was nobody who could stop her,” Nzekwe said. “The only person who could stop her was herself.”
Rogers averaged 6.3 points and 4.6 rebounds per game as a freshman at UCLA in 2007-08, starting 15 games for the Bruins, but she decided in the spring of 2008 that Los Angeles wasn’t for her. She told her teammates of the decision before leaving town.
“It was kind of hard,” she said. “They didn’t understand. Everyone says: ‘You started and scored a lot, so why would you want to leave? And it’s a program in L.A.’”
Rogers has since found a home not far away from home, and she hasn’t once second-guessed her decision.
“I like being able to go home across town,” said Rogers, whose mother and stepfather live in Seattle. “I have a lot of friends here, and a lot of family, so it helps a lot. It helps me to forget about whatever’s going on when I go there.”
Today, Rogers will get to face the team for which she started her college basketball career.
An under-the-weather Rogers was asked earlier this week whether there would be extra motivation.
“Always,” she said.
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