While Mehlville Senior High School girls’ basketball team fans may see them as a one-two scoring punch, opponents view Alyse and Kayla Gordon as double the trouble.

The twin sisters are quite hard to miss on the court with their 6-foot frames and nearly identical looks. In fact, Panther head coach Ed Feibig is the first to admit he had problems distinguishing the two juniors when they first joined the team.

“I really did have problems when they were freshmen,” he said. “But you eventually begin to pick up subtle differences be-tween the two. Right now they have different hairstyles. But you couldn’t tell them apart on the court because they could easily interchange positions without a problem.”

The Gordon twins received their first taste of basketball as kindergartners when they attended older sister Jerica’s practice.

“We went to our older sister’s practice and the coach wanted to know if we wanted to play,” Alyse told the Call. “So the next thing you know we were shooting the ball around.”

Considering the Gordons have played basketball together for most of their lives, it’s easy to understand the chemistry that the two have together when they’re on the court.

“It’s like we can read each other’s mind,” Kayla told the Call. “We know where the other’s going to be nearly each time.”

Alyse plays at the forward position for the Panthers and is averaging 11.9 points and 4.8 rebounds a game this season. She also leads the Panthers in assists with 30, while also recording 16 steals and 14 blocked shots.

But Feibig believes that the strongest asset to Alyse’s game is her intensity on the court.

“I think that Alyse is a little more intense on the court than the rest of the kids on the team,” the Mehlville coach said. “She a kid that doesn’t like to lose.”

Kayla plays at the guard position where she’s averaging 10.5 points and 4.9 re-bounds a game this season. Kayla also has 19 assists, 10 steals and nine blocked shots.

“Kayla’s excellent from the three-point line,” Feibig said. “She’s beginning to de-velop her inside game and is also a good dribbler and passer.”

Both athletes also are members of the Mehlville softball team. Alyse plays several infield positions, while Kayla plays behind the plate as the team’s catcher.

The daughters of Sharon and Randy Gor-don also excel in the classroom and are members of the National Honor Society.

Kayla carries an impressive 4.0 grade-point average and Alyse is right behind her with a 3.9 GPA.

The Panthers are 8-0 overall and both Alyse and Kayla believe that this could easily be the best Mehlville basketball team that they’ve played on in their three-year career.

“It blows me away in how much talent we have on this year’s team,” Kayla said. “Last year we did awesome and hopefully we can improve on that this year.”

But one interesting fact that you don’t see on many teams is the fact that the entire team is one big group of friends.

“We’re all good friends off of the court which is very good,” Alyse said. “It’s been wonderful because all the chemistry is there and it seems like we’re becoming stronger as a team.”

The Panthers are back in action Thurs-day, Jan. 5, when they play host to Mar-quette at 7 p.m.