Twins Piper and Harper McGinley relishing their time together at Abington: ‘They bring the energy’

Piper and Harper McGinley have been trusting each other inherently since Day 1. They had to, they’re twins. The Abington High seniors are playing their final year as teammates, first in the fall on the Ghosts’ girls’ soccer team, now as guards on the girls’ basketball team, then in the spring in girls’ lacrosse.

“I love it, we’ve played every sport together for so long that we just have that connection,” Piper said. “We don’t even need to talk about it or anything. We know where each other is 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 evident in the fall and is becoming evident this winter.

Piper, who hopes to play basketball in college at the Division III level, is a second-year starter for the Ghosts. Harper, who’s 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.

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 thing.

“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 is 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 competitive streak amplifies when they go at each other.

When asked which of the two is more competitive, Piper and Harper both shared the same answer: Piper.

“She’s a psycho,” Harper said.

“There’s no fistfights,” Piper added. “But there have been some good [arguments].”

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

“We need a ref,” Piper finished.

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Lawson appreciates what the twins bring to the team as athletes and as people. When she marks off Piper as a starter or sends Harper 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.”

For the first time, the person Harper and Piper trust the most won’t be there next year.

Not only will they be on different teams, they’ll be in different places, which is a dynamic they haven’t faced much outside of 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 the first person I look to so that’s definitely going to be a big adjustment, not having her to pass to.”

Whoever is doing what, when the McGinley sisters are on the court together, 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. “[Harper’s] always 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.”

This story was produced as part of a partnership between The Inquirer and City of Basketball Love, a nonprofit news organization that covers high school and college basketball in the Philadelphia area while also helping mentor the next generation of sportswriters. This collaboration will help boost coverage of the city’s vibrant amateur basketball scene, from the high school ranks up through the Big 5 and beyond.