<\/a>Juneau-Douglas’ Kaleb Tompkins passes under pressure against Sitka’s Branden Case, center, and Trevan Coleman at JDHS in February 2016. (Michael Penn | Juneau Empire File)<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Ava, 21, is also making the most of her time on the court this season, averaging four assists and six rebounds for the Knights (7-2, 0-0 NESCAC).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
The cousins pointed to their deeply rooted connection to basketball as one of their reasons for success.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“Our whole family has been a big basketball family since before we were around. My dad (Guy), as well as his brothers, all played. My dad played in college. So we were just always raised around it,” Ava said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Kaleb echoed his cousin’s thoughts.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“We grew up playing basketball at a young age,” Kaleb said. “We both love it a lot, we’re both competitors and I think playing at an early age and just having a love for the game and being able to play with our cousins and stuff like that is a big part of it.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
College basketball is dramatically different from high school basketball, they said, and it took some time adjusting. The cousins played ample minutes in high school, Ava at Thunder Mountain and Kaleb at JDHS, but found themselves bench-ridden when starting in college.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“In your first year, you can’t give up,” Ava said. “My freshman year, I didn’t really play at all, saw very few minutes and now, I’m a senior captain and have been starting for three years.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“The first year is going to be brutal no matter how good you think you are coming out of high school,” she added. “For a lot of us, we never sat on the bench in high school and so college is really just about learning how to be a part of a team and what you can do when you’re not necessarily playing.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t