Twins carry Basic to win against Foothill

Nick Christensen

Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005 | 9:40 a.m.

Ask Ashley Purdie about the secret to her success, and she'll tell you it's all about connections.

Not necessarily connections on the court to the outside world, but to her twin sister Amber, the other half of Basic's double-trouble this season.

"It's just a twin thing," Ashley said. "Intuition -- we just know."

Know how to feed each other the ball and work together on the court, and in the case of Tuesday's 61-49 win against Foothill, know how to come up with identical numbers -- both the Purdie twins had 18 points and three fouls each.

"They are just awesome," Basic coach Teresa Gallegos said. "They're wonderful, knowledgeable, athletic, and basically, they kept us alive tonight."

Amber Purdie said her and her sister's similar styles of play help complement each player's game.

"She plays good, then I do good. We help each other out, everything," Amber said.

The fouls came easier than the scoring for the Wolves on Tuesday, as Basic had already committed 10 fouls with 49.5 seconds left in the first quarter. The Lady Wolves gave up seven more in the half while on the double-bonus, but Foothill was unable to convert free throws to take advantage of the Basic mistakes.

The Falcons went 9-for-13 from the free-throw line after Basic's 10th first-half foul. The Lady Wolves committed nine fouls in the second half, but Foothill went 6-for-10 from the line in the final 16 minutes.

"We've seen them so many times over the years, we knew what we had to do. We just didn't get it done," said Foothill coach Chris Sefcheck, adding that he was particularly frustrated with the stretch run.

"Our goal was to be within 10 points at halftime, and we did that," he said. "By the fourth quarter, we needed to jump it up a notch and we didn't have it."

Gallegos said her team failed to adjust to the way the officials called Tuesday's game.

"These girls play aggressive basketball," she said. "Some referees call it, some don't."

The win clinched a playoff spot for Basic, and provided an important springboard with a road game against division-leading Coronado slated for Thursday.

"I'm just glad we got to play a good team going into Coronado," Gallegos said. "It's hard coming off a team that's not as competitive. We feel we're the best in our league. This game really helped us prepare for Coronado."

Foothill moved into a tie with Liberty for fourth place in the Southeast Division with three games left to play. The top four teams from each division advance to the regional quarterfinals on Feb. 15.

Sefcheck, in his first year as Foothill's head coach after time as an assistant, said he's still trying to adapt his team to a new style of play.

"I knew going into conference we'd need to grow each week and nail down some momentum," he said. "It could come down to us against Liberty at the last game of the season."

Foothill hosts 0-20 Del Sol on Thursday.