Story on Lady Eagle Indiana Recruits

[GrandGreen]

BREBEUF JESUIT

On and off court, they're like twins

By Nat Newell

nat.newell@indystar.com

November 29, 2003

Amber Jackson and Amanda Quattrocchi have just discussed the only season of their basketball careers they've spent apart, using their own code to recall the entire summer in a moment.

It's so quick, it's hard to tell who's saying what, but it doesn't matter. No one else has a clue what the seniors from top-ranked Brebeuf Jesuit are talking about, either, as they communicate in abbreviated yeahs and yeses.

Jackson is black, 6-2 and plays in the post. Quattrocchi is a 5-7 white point guard. They're so close that teammates and coaches continue to mix up their identities.

"They look nothing alike, but people call Amber Amanda and Amanda Amber all the time," said Brebeuf coach Kendall Kreinhagen.

North Texas coach Tina Slinker, who has signed both players, called them Amanber and sent Quattrocchi a letter intended for Jackson during the recruiting process.

The girls met while playing on the same all-star team at Riverside Park when they were 9, and they were on Indiana's Finest AAU team the following summer.

Quattrocchi's family would give Jackson rides to events because they passed her home on the way, but the girls didn't become friends until sharing the bench for More Magic, another AAU program, when they were 12.

"I was playing in the Lawrence League, and another coach told Amanda's dad I needed to be on his team," Jackson said before Quattrocchi finished the story: "We went and checked her out and I was like, 'Dad, I don't know. She's got some big feet.'

"She had these glasses. . . . She didn't really look like a basketball player. Then we got on the court and started playing, and I was like, 'OK, we can have her on the team.' "

Jackson wasn't impressed at first with Quattrocchi, either -- "She was really small, and I was like, 'She can't even get the ball to the basket,' " Jackson said -- but their games were as good a match as their personalities. Jackson was a post player and rebounder, Quattrocchi a point guard and shooter.

They're 249-78 playing together, according to Quattrocchi's father, Tony, and Brebeuf has built around their talents.

The duo was inserted into the starting lineup as freshmen, and the program was 41-7 the past two seasons and is off to a 3-0 start this year, outscoring opponents by an average of 31.3 points per game.

Jackson is averaging 14.6 points and 10 rebounds this season, Quattrocchi 9.3 points and 4.3 assists.

"Coming in as freshmen, we knew we didn't have a solid point guard, and we knew what Amanda had," said Kreinhagen, then an assistant at Brebeuf who returned to the program as a head coach last season.

"We didn't know what Amber had, but she came out in practice and it was like, 'Oh my goodness.' "

Kreinhagen said she regularly sees evidence of the experience the duo has playing together. Jackson reacts to Quattrocchi's passes a fraction of a second early, making them harder to defend.

If there's a double team in the post, Jackson knows where to find Quattrocchi on the perimeter.

"The only place I've seen that kind of bond is with twins," Slinker said. "That's what they remind me of on the court -- sisters."

Call Star reporter Nat Newell at 1-317-444-2610.