City of Basketball Love

Jerome Taylor (@ThatGuy_Rome)
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It’s not uncommon for first-year college students to have difficulty adjusting to college, and doing it in a different country more than 10,000 miles from home just steepens the learning curve. 

Having a sibling on campus, well, that helps ease a bit of the uncomfortableness. Having two siblings on campus can almost make you feel like you're back at home. 

That’s what life is now for Mia Jacobs, who’s in her first year at La Salle but gets to play alongside her older sisters, seniors Claire and Amy Jacobs.

“It's been very different, but having them here, it's kind of like slipping back into being at home,” Mia said. “I've been at home with my parents the past three years by myself as an only child and then coming over here, and it’s just us three. So we’re giving each other a lot of support.”

The Jacobs sisters played several sports growing up in Perth, Australia, but basketball is the one that stuck. 

“When we all kind of started playing basketball out the back with each other, we'd be out there straight after school until the sun went down,” Claire said.  “We wouldn't go in the house until someone was crying or there was a fight or something.” 

“Just by virtue of being the smallest and the youngest [Mia cried the most],” Claire added. 

It’s during those after-school hoop sessions all three of the Jacobs developed their skills. For Mia, that meant taking some bumps and bruises that only the youngest sibling can experience.

“They wouldn't let me score. They wouldn't let me dribble the ball. Like I'd have to figure it out myself,” Mia said. “They'd block me every time, but I'd keep going, and eventually I was scoring, I was beating them sometimes.”

Despite their competitiveness with each other, the twins, Amy and Claire, always wanted to play competitive organized basketball together with their younger sister Mia. But it was challenging because of the age gap between them. 

Those days are over, though, and the Jacobs are finally playing together as a family. 

So far this year, the results have been promising. Claire is on course to increase her scoring production from last year. Right now, she’s averaging 11.7 ppg, up from last year’s 10.3. Amy is adapting to a new role, which has led to her leading the team in rebounding (5.5 rpg from 2.6 last year). As for Mia, she’s averaging the third-most minutes off the bench for the Explorers (16.5 mpg). 

And on Wednesday, she used those minutes to go for a career-high 13 points in a 66-60 win over Monmouth.

“I think that she played very aggressively today… She used her size, and she was very crafty doing a lot of the things that she tries attempting in practice,” Claire said. “And I think making her free throws was very helpful as well because she got to the free throw a lot.”

“Now I’ve just got to make my layups,” Mia jokingly added.

Mia’s scoring, which included going 8-8 from the free throw line, buoyed a bench unit that had to find offensive production from elsewhere because the leading bench scorer, Gabby Crawford, was dealing with a leg injury all night. 

Bench scoring is critically important to this year’s Explorers team because head coach Mountain MacGillivray is using a platoon substitution system that has resulted in 10 players averaging over ten minutes a game so far this season. 

But even though it was a career night for the 6-foot-2 freshman, all three of the sisters made major contributions to the win.

Claire matched her younger sister’s scoring output on the evening and added six rebounds. Amy’s free throws in the game's final minute were likely the most important points that came from the trio. 

Amy struggled with her touch throughout the game because she has an injured shooting (right) hand. But when she went to the line with 56 seconds with the opportunity to push the Explorers’ lead to 62-58, she did just that. Then she did it again with seven seconds left for the game's final points. 

Her sisters knew what the results would be when she walked to the line, injured hand and all. 

“Even though she's got a sore hand, free throws are very important to her. She shoots a lot of them,” Claire said. “Amy's very consistent from there, so when she went and shot, we had no doubt she was going to make both of them.”

Those free throws iced the game after Charity Spears made a layup to give the Explorers a 64-60 lead with 15 seconds remaining.

Now, after bouncing back from their loss to Temple, the Explorers will head to Maryland-Eastern Shore looking to pick up their 8th win of the year, and there’s a good chance if they do, the Jacobs sisters will have something to do with it. 

“When all three of us are on the court together, it's like super fun,” Claire said. “We talk about it at the end of games, how much we enjoy playing all together."