PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Talk about double-teaming — a pair of twins are this week’s KOIN 6 News High School Spotlight!
Either of these girls could be individually highlighted for their stellar play on Beaverton High School’s basketball team, but because Hannah and Emily Rice have never been separated before, it’s only right to celebrate them together.
Ever since birth, the Rice twins have been nearly inseparable. (Although, Emily would have you know she was, in fact, out in the world for a whole 7.5 minutes before her sister.)
“We’ve done everything together, we have the same friend group, we’ve always played the same sport so I feel like we don’t know anything different because we’ve just done everything together,” Hannah said.
That includes helping lead their Beaverton basketball team to the top ranking in the state.
“I think it’s really fun, like we get to like play against each other, practice together and talk about practice or games and like bounce things off each other,” Emily said.
Without a doubt, that unescapable teammate has made them individually better.
“I feel like it’s also made us super competitive [and] wanting to be better,” Hannah explained. “Because we’ve had our teammate basically with us constantly… we get really competitive sometimes.”
Their chemistry on the court flows as easily as the way they finish each other’s sentences.
“You kind of get to know each other’s tendencies and their strengths and weaknesses,” Emily began.
Hannah then picked up where her sister trailed off, saying she has “an idea of like what she’s going to do before she does it, maybe her go-to move or something like that…”
“And then the encouragement’s always there,” Emily concluded.
But what has always been may not always be — the two seniors will be heading to college in the fall. They say the majority of their applications have gone to different universities.
“We’ve kind of just known it was going to happen at some point,” Hannah said. “It kinda seems normal to us not to be going to the same school, but it’s definitely going to be really weird.”
That’s something to face when it becomes reality, but for now, all their focus is on making their last high school season — and likely their last season together — go all the way to the championship game at the Chiles Center.
“That would be the coolest thing ever especially since we lost in the state championship for soccer and now having the ability to do everything all over again with a different sport and a different team who we’re equally as close with would be just the best feeling ever,” Emily said.