Cherokees wonder twins power hoop team

Almost every time he sees us we're wearing our jerseys, so I think he just looks at our numbers," Korey said. "If we're not (in uniform), he'll just call us Coburns."

Najvar said having Korey and Keeley on the court at the same time with 5-foot-10 sophomore post Georgia Moff gives the Cherokees' a three-post dimension on the court, which helps them excel on the boards.

Serna said that has come in handy for T-M (11-9 overall, 1-2 in District 31-4A) this season.

"I'm able to put one of them on the inside and one on the outside, which gives us more height than we've had in a long time," said Serna, whose team returns to 31-4A play at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday when it hosts Kingsville. "Without them, we would be hurting in our rebounding."

Najvar, who played on the Cherokees freshman team while the twins were on the junior varsity last season, said she wouldn't know what to do with herself without Keeley and Korey on the floor this season.

"I felt lost without them last season because when we're playing, I can just chuck the ball up and they'll go get it," said Najvar, who has played basketball with the twins since sixth grade.

After helping the Cherokees volleyball team make the playoffs for the first time since restarting the program and helping T-M's girls golf team qualify for the Region IV-4A tournament this past season, Keeley and Korey are determined to lead T-M's basketball team to its fourth straight playoff appearance this season.

Although T-M features a young team this season, with five sophomores and five juniors, the Coburns believe the Cherokees will add to their collection of playoff banners hanging on the school's gym wall this season.

"We don't want to be the team (from T-M) that didn't make the playoffs," Keeley said.

Plus, if they win their district this season, Keeley and Korey get to take part in shaving Serna's head with the rest of the team, which gives the Cherokees some added incentive.

"We have a lot of pressure on us but our team has a lot of heart and we want it real bad," Korey said. "We've been a second-half team in games this season, so if we'll just play a full game we (can do it)."

If T-M's Wonder Twins have anything to say about it, that is.

(Edit:Ruby)