Of the five women who signed letters of intent to play basketball at SMU this season, two had national team experience. They happen to be not only sisters, but twins.
“I am elated with the signing of this year’s class,” said Head Coach Rhonda Rompola.
The 6-foot-2-inch and 6-foot-3-inch forward and guard, Alicia and Keely Froling, are coming in from Australia as the No. 1 and No. 3 ranked players. Although they’re only an inch apart the sisters joked they can still share clothes.
They both represented Australia at the 2012 FIBA U17 World Championships in Amsterdam. At age 16 Alicia, guard/forward, went on to help Australia take home the bronze medal in the 2013 FIBA U19 World Championship in Lithuania.
Now in the U.S., the sisters are still adjusting to the culture and the pace of the game, but they can’t wait to play their first game as Mustangs.
“It’s different coming here and having different rules, even though they are minor,” Keely said. “It’s been great, even being so far away from home. It’s great to have a team behind you and to have a solid support system.”
The twins played for the U18 North Queensland team and helped lead it to its first national championship in 2013. Keely, forward, served as the team captain and averaged 19.1 points and 11.8 rebounds. Alicia, guard/forward, averaged 16.1 points with 13.5 rebounds and 3.6 blocks per game.
“We play really well together,” Alicia said. “We’ve been playing together for almost nine years and we’re excited to play four more.”
Aside from completing each others sentences, they highlighted their strengths on the court.
“I think Alicia’s greatest asset on the court is how aggressive she is and rebounding,” Keely said. “Defensively she can disrupt people.”
“I think Keely’s best asset is her shooting,” Alicia said. “She’s coming back from an injury so she’s still working on defense, but she always goes hard.”
They joked about one of the biggest adjustments being their numbers. Usually Alicia would wear nine and Keely would wear 11, but due to college rules one had to change.
“College rules you’re not allowed to wear nine, but I’m still 11 and Alicia is 10,” Keely said.
“I get to keep my number,” Keely joked.
You can come out and watch the twins in action this weekend as they open their season Friday, Nov. 14 against Northern Colorado in Moody Coliseum.
If you can’t make it on Friday the Mustangs are scheduled for 15 televised games this season, five of which will be on ESPN family of networks. The first televised game will be on Dec. 6 when the Mustangs take on Arizona State, away, on the Pac-12 Network.
