UC Davis' Karley and Kourtney Eaton have been together their entire lives. The twins from Longview, Wash., have played basketball as a tandem as long as they can remember.

Now, the seniors have one more season at arm's length. Their goal is simple: Win the Big West Conference Tournament.

Morgan Bertsch, in her fifth year on campus, was completely under the radar when recruiters scoured Northern California for next-level talent.

But Aggie head coach Jennifer Gross had a feeling about the post player from Santa Rosa. She called her. UC Davis had Bertsch at "hello."

The 2018-19 women's campaign is about to kick off — Cal State East Bay in exhibition on Thursday and Stanford in earnest on Wednesday, Nov. 7.

Meanwhile, Bertsch and Kourtney Eaton are inches away from rewriting the school's record book.

Bertsch, a two-time all-conference first-teamer, is just 44 points off Carol Rische's 1979-83 career scoring record of 1,711. For Eaton, 40 more assists and she passes her coach as the school's top enabler at 449.

The Eatons and Bertsch sat down recently to talk about what it all has meant, and how special they believe their final season together could be.

So, Morgan, has being at UC Davis been as advertised?

"For me, it didn't take a whole of advertising to get me here because I didn't have any other offers in Division I … or basketball, in general," the senior says.

Bertsch says she always knew of Davis basketball, understood the university's lofty academic reputation and was familiar with the city.

Her visit was the capper ...

"These coaches are amazing," the 6-foot-4 post told me. "The girls were awesome. Why wouldn't I come here? I couldn't pass up that kind of opportunity."

For the Eatons, second verse, same as the first ...

"Like Morgan was saying, our visit was pretty exciting," relays Kourtney, who admits that she and her sister "didn't know much about this part of California before we started getting recruited."

With academics so important to the two psychology majors, Kourtney says coming to Davis became "an easy decision."

Bertsch is a biomedical engineering major who, after this season, may have to put further studies on hold.

"She is one of the best players in the nation." Those are coach Gross' words. Note the period after the sentence. No qualifications. Gross says she'll put Bertsch up against anybody.

"She is just incredible," says the coach. "WNBA material."

Bertsch says she owes a lot of her Aggie success to redshirting her freshman year and having Kourtney Eaton on the other end of the ball.

"Coming in, I wanted to play," Bertsch remembers. "The idea of being a Division I athlete. I wanted to contribute right away."

Morgan says it was "obviously disappointing at first" to sit out her first season as a redshirt.

But Gross sold the idea of getting acclimated.

"After you think about it, the perks of it, it was really a huge opportunity for me," Bertsch says, reflecting.

"It made so much sense, even though emotionally it wasn't what I wanted at that point, I had to think down the road, then it made so much sense. Having another year to pursue engineering. Another year to build muscle — when I came in I was so small.

"It gave me so many opportunities to get adjusted to college life, to playing basketball here. Probably one of the best decisions I could have made."
As for the Morgan and Kourtney Show, both players say they feed off each other...

"Coming from a post's perspective, it's always awesome to have a point guard that can hit you when you want it," Bertsch explains. "It makes everything so much easier. Kourtney will find you when you didn't even think you were open.

"It's so cool that we have that kind of connection."

Kourtney then weighs in on getting the ball in Bertsch's hands: "I would love to see the number of my assists that have been linked to Morgan.

"Her ability to score the ball? As a point guard, you just have to love it. And you can get her the ball in so many different ways.

"She makes my job easy … and I have to thank her for my assist record when I get it. I can't even imagine how many have been to Morgan. Yeah, it's been incredible."

After leading Mark Morris High to a couple of Washington state prep titles, the Eatons appeared to be heading to different universities. But Gross offered them a package deal.

"That was huge," Karley says. "It was always our dream to play basketball together. We play better together … and the coaches saw that. They believed in both of us. To get a Division I scholarship — for both of us to get that — we're very blessed."

All these years together, and now the specter of graduation is at hand come June. Will it be tough for the Eatons to go their separate ways?

"We're ready," says Kourtney, waiting for her sister to join her and Bertsch in this interview in the stands at The Pavilion. "(Karley) knows what she wants to do. She wants to take a year off, then get into a physician's-assistant program. She's probably going home for her gap year.

"I'm still very undecided," but Kourtney points to an optometry career on the horizon.

Karley arrives and sits down, leaving a seat between her and Kourtney. Apparently, the pair are already practicing being apart.

"There's going to be a time that we're not three inches apart from each other and we're going to be just fine. We're ready for it," says Kourtney, getting an affirmative nod from her sister.

— Former Davis Enterprise sports editor Bruce Gallaudet writes "Inside Aggie Nation" weekly for UC Davis Athletics. He can be reached at bgallaudet41@gmail.com. His "Aggie Corner" column is published Fridays or Sundays in The Davis Enterprise.