City of Basketball Love

Andrew Robinson (@ADrobinson3)
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ABINGTON — Trust isn’t given, it’s born.

Piper McGinley and Harper McGinley have been trusting each other inherently since day one, they had to, they’re twins. The Abington seniors are playing their final year as teammates, first in the fall on the soccer pitch, in the spring on the lacrosse field and currently as guards on the Ghosts girls’ basketball team.

Their fall and spring teams have seen it, but this is the first basketball season the McGinley trust is on full display.

“I love it, we’ve played every sport together for so long that we just have that connection,” Piper said after Thursday’s 55-27 win over Upper Moreland. “We don’t even need to talk about it or anything. We know where each other are at all times, we have that connection automatically.”

“I’ve enjoyed it,” Harper added. “It’s a twin telepathy when we’re playing sports, definitely not for anything else, but I’m glad we’re getting a chance to experience this in basketball and not just soccer or lacrosse.”

There’s nobody Harper trusts more than Piper and nobody Piper trusts more than Harper, something that was extremely evident the last few fall seasons and becoming clear this winter.

Piper, who is aiming to play basketball in college, is in her second year starting for the Ghosts and played some off the bench as a sophomore. Harper, who has committed to play lacrosse at Bryant, described herself as “a practice player” prior to this year but she has found a role in first year coach Allison Lawson’s rotation.

Piper starts, Harper comes off the bench but their minutes do overlap on occasion. In Thursday’s win over Upper Moreland to start SOL crossovers, the twins were in the same five to start the second quarter and at the end of the third, where Harper found Piper off an inbound for a buzzer-beating three to wrap the quarter.

“It was not drawn up, I popped open and she saw me,” Piper said.

“It was location, she happened to be open,” Harper noted. “Put a little twin power on that and it worked.”

The McGinley house is a competitive one. It wasn’t long before the twins were following their brothers to play whatever sport or game was going on in the neighborhood and where their inherent trust in each other became a real, tangible thing.

It’s been very evident in the fall, no doubt a few SOL Liberty coaches are glad to see the twins departing, as Harper and Piper were a consistent one-two punch on back-to-back division soccer championship teams. It was also evident in the spring, although Piper was more focused on travel basketball last spring, one twin’s first look usually going toward the other.

“Playing in the backyard with our brothers built that competitive bond,” Harper said. “I think we’ve always looked for each other on the field because we have a lot of trust in each other.

“We know what each other are capable of so I think there’s a unique level of trust we have in each other.”

The two are a terror to play against, especially when they’re each other’s opponents. Piper said their hyper-competitive streak only amplifies when they go at each other and it often ends in a fight although they very rarely actually get to the point of trading hands.

Asked which of the two is more competitive, Piper and Harper both had the same answer: Piper.

“She’s a psycho,” Harper said.

“There’s no fistfights,” Piper said. “But there have been some good (arguments).”

“We realized we can’t do one-v-ones, it always ends up where someone goes in the house and throws a ball at somebody,” Harper continued.

“We need a ref,” Piper finished.

As to who gets that glorious role of mediator, it’s usually one of the twins’ brothers. In peak sibling fashion, there’s usually very little mediating going on and instead a lot of encouraging and incentivizing another squabble.

“My brother encourages us,” Piper said. “He doesn’t actually help so we kind of don’t play one-on-one anymore.”

The twins figure their last real game against each other was probably more than a year ago, the more competitive one naturally claiming victory.

“I definitely won,” Piper said.

“Well, no, but probably,” Harper conceded.

If Piper is the more competitive of the two, then Harper definitely has the better comedic timing. Now, both sisters have plenty of personality but Harper’s got a reputation of having the right, sometimes not-so-right, thing to say at a moment that may or may not call for it.

“I think one of the things I bring to the team is that I make all the jokes,” Harper said. “It makes it fun for me too. It takes a little bit off everybody, if they’re having a bad day or something, I try to make them laugh, it’s fun that way.”

Lawson appreciates what the twins bring to the team as athletes but also as people. When she marks off Piper as a starter or sends Harper up to the scorer’s table, Lawson knows what the sisters are going to bring.

“They’re soccer players, they’re lacrosse players, they’re going to run,” Lawson said. “They bring the energy, they bring the toughness, they do the little things on the court that trickle down to everybody else.

“They know if they’re going to be out there, they have to step up their game.”

Assistant coach Aiyannah Peal also loves the twins. Seeing they were both about to be interviewed, the former Ghosts standout made sure to note they were her kids and the twins’ competitiveness was from her.

Lawson also appreciates the levity the twins’ personalities bring. The first year head coach said Harper has a talent for breaking a serious moment with a comment that mellows everything out.

Previous coach Dan Marsh also seemed to get what the McGinleys were about.

“Sometimes Marsh would cut me loose,” Harper said. “Sometimes I’d say things and then it was immediately ‘oh my  gosh.’

“He’d actually laugh though,” Piper noted.

“I think I could get away with Marsh and some people couldn’t,” Harper said.

For the most part, Piper and Harper don’t get confused for each other. But it has happened.

“I went to one of Piper’s basketball tournaments this summer, people started coming up to me like ‘what’s up Piper?’,” Harper said. “I thought ‘well, I guess she knows you,’ then just said ‘what’s up.’”

That may not be a problem next year. For the first time, the person Harper and Piper trust most just won’t be there. Not only will they be on different teams, they’ll be in different places which is a dynamic they really haven’t faced much of outside travel or club sports the past few summers.

“It’s going to be really weird, I’m excited to see how it works out, but I’ll definitely miss her,” Harper said. “It’s going to be really weird actually, I haven’t really thought about it. In lacrosse, she’s literally the first person I look to so that’s definitely going to be a big adjustment, not having her to pass to.”

The McGinley sisters chalked it up to chance that Piper was usually the one scoring while Harper was more of the facilitator, but it doesn’t mean one can’t do the other.

Whoever is doing what, when the twins are on the court together this season for Abington, the Ghosts can expect positive things to come from it, even if it is somewhat new ground for one of them.

“If we switched roles, it’d be the exact same thing,” Piper said. “She always is looking for me because we have the most trust in each other. That kind of sounds rude, but it’s just true. We know each other so well.”

“It’s twin telepathy when we’re on the field or the court,” Harper added. “I still gotta get used to saying that.”

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ABINGTON 55, UPPER MORELAND 27

SOL crossover play got off to a good start for the Ghosts.

Abington, which is one game behind Upper Dublin in the SOL Liberty standings, knows every game against the SOL Freedom matters with all results counting in the overall league table. So even giving up some size to a Golden Bears team that had been starting to hit a stride, Abington wasn’t backing down.

One of the team’s stronger second quarters this season broke the game open as Abington used its open floor game to pick up the win.

“That’s what it’s all about, team,” Lawson said. “We knew coming in they were big, we said all we had to do was box out and push the ball. As long as we pushed the ball, we’d get them tired and at some point, our shots would start to fall.”

Mikiaya Durham had another solid offensive outing, scoring a team-best 15 points including four three-pointers. Piper McGinley had 12 points and was credited with six rebounds and six assists while point guard Maya Johnson had a quiet scoring game but doled out seven helpers.

Holly Gohl paced Upper Moreland with 14 points and nine rebounds. UM has a quick turnaround to face Phoenixville on Friday

By Quarter
Abington High:   13  |  20  |  12  |  10  ||  55
Upper Moreland  7   |   4   |   4   |   9   ||  27

Scoring
A: Mikiaya Durham 15, Piper McGinley 12, Jordyn Reynolds 7, Sarah Oleary 5, Zyn McClain 4, Kaylia Rice 3, Ava Teich 3, Kara Slavin 3, Harper McGinley 2, Maya Johnson 1

UM: Holly Gohl 14, Lily Hansen 6, Mikel Lancit 4, Lianna Adames 3