When Rhode Island travels to UAlbany on Friday, the Phillips family will be ‘a house divided’

Lilly and Sophie Phillips — as well as their dad Bob, who coached the pair at the youth level and at Cambridge Central School — weren’t sure this moment would come. Bob was hopeful Rhode Island would schedule a game near Sophie’s hometown for her senior season but knew even if that happened, there were other local schools that could have been chosen. He’s grateful it was UAlbany and said the opportunity to watch his only two children face-off is “surreal.”

The competitiveness between the siblings that will be on display Friday has been present for years, not just in basketball, but also in softball and soccer. It brings out the best in each of them, whether it was in sports or playing cards.

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When one of them excelled in a skill on the court, it fueled the other to get better and keep up. “I think that was the biggest part, just having like, a natural competitor that you’re up against every day,” Sophie told The Next. “Whether we’re just having fun in the driveway shooting, we wanted to out-shoot the other person, or in practice in high school, my dad was our coach and even in AAU, we always had to guard each other. We always had to be on opposite teams, so we kind of got good at what the other person’s strengths or weaknesses were. So that really helped us get better at different aspects of our game.” 

Bob agreed that his daughters pushed each other in a positive way. “I think you saw each of them leapfrog each other at different [points],” he told The Next. “…[E]ach time there was something new, [Sophie] ate it up and Lil kind of followed [then] she might leapfrog her in a particular drill or a particular concept, and then the other one would do the same. And it would be kind of that way back and forth throughout and — which is kind of nice, because you saw growth. They both really pushed each other to grow as players and kids, really as sisters.”

Lilly emphasized that while she enjoyed having someone to compete against and to push her to be better, having someone to talk about games with and support her has made it more fun as well. 

The pair agreed that playing on their high school basketball teams is their favorite basketball memory together. For Lilly, winning a state championship as a sophomore alongside Sophie and their other teammates made her love basketball even more. Despite the COVID-19 pandemic impacting their junior and senior seasons, Sophie’s favorite memory was the overall experience of playing with Lilly and the rest of her high school team. “[Seeing] what we could accomplish with our team from, like, just a very small area that we grew up playing together with our whole team and that group since we were, like fourth graders,” she said.

When the time came to look ahead to college, Lilly and Sophie took the recruiting process separately. Though they wanted to play with each other, they didn’t want to limit their options if a school was only interested in one of them. Sophie recalled it being hard for her because Lilly wanted to go to UAlbany, leaving her to decide if she wanted to stay closer to home and play with her sister or go to Rhode Island a few hours away. 

Going to separate colleges allowed Lilly and Sophie to grow into their own individual identities. Both of them were recognized as just Lilly or Sophie, instead of being grouped together. They were also able to grow independently in their skills on the court. 

“I think growing up, it was always like, Sophie was the point guard and I was just the guard,” Lilly told The Next. “But I think now it’s like, we kind of just grew into our own individual selves and being able to just increase our skills, like differently with different coaching staffs, different programs. So I think it was really good for the both of us.” 

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During their freshmen season (2021-22), Lilly started 31 out of 32 games and averaged 21.4 minutes per game while Sophie averaged 4.0 minutes per game over eight games. “They took different paths, but they really grew, and they worked equally hard, and they each had independent situations of the other that they really had to deal with, whatever that may be, especially in Soph’s case with very little playing time,” Bob said. “And I think she really pushed herself to get to that point where she wanted to play as much as Lil, and she was determined to do it at the school that she was at. So it was good, and it made them grow as not only kids but as students, as basketball players.” 

The pair still have found time to train together during the summer, going to the same gym and doing conditioning, lifting and basketball workouts with each other. Sophie appreciates the opportunity to play with her sister after spending the college season apart.

The pair are both guards but each has a different style of play. While Lilly has tended to be one to drive and Sophie has leaned more towards a shoot-first mentality, they’ve looking to shoot more and drive more, respectively. Both agree they’re similar in how they play, including their calm mentality on the court, Sophie noted. Lilly said, “I think we’re just super team-oriented and team-focused. So I feel like we’re just really — we want our teammates to win, and we like to celebrate our teammates a lot.”

Sophie has enjoyed watching her sister grow from afar and is already impressed by the clips that Lilly has sent her before the start of the 2024-25 season. Last season, Lilly started all 32 games for UAlbany and averaged 7.8 points, 1.9 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.2 steals per game. Sophie started all 35 games for Rhode Island and averaged 10.6 points, 1.3 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 0.9 steals per game on the way to setting the program’s single-season 3-point record (89).

On Nov. 4, Sophie opened the season against Stonehill, recording 15 points, two rebounds, one assist, two steals and one block. The game against Sophie and Rhode Island is Lilly’s first of the season.

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While at school over the past three years, the sisters have called each other nearly every day or texted if they couldn’t call. “There are a few conflicts that come up where we have games on the same exact night, but literally, after every single game, we call each other, talk about the game,” Sophie said. “I know her team, just almost as well as I know my own team at this point. So we’ll talk about what’s going on on her team and what happened during their game, and then same thing, she’ll call me after my game, tell me what I did well or what I need to do better … because, honestly, player-wise, and person-wise, she’s probably the person that knows me best and knows what I’m capable of and same with me for her. So I think that is super helpful, especially outside of each other’s teams, like we’re talking to our own teammates and coaches every single day, but it’s nice to have an outside perspective watching.”

They also try to watch as many of each other’s games as they can. Lilly noted that the differences in the America East and Atlantic 10 conference schedules allow her to watch Sophie’s Sunday conference games with ease. “When there was a conflict, I would always just not look at the score and just re-watch either on my bus ride home or just after my game the next day or something,” Lilly said. “So I always found a way to watch it.”

But on Nov. 8, for the first time in their college careers, Lilly and Sophie won’t need to watch each other’s games after playing. Their two teams will square off at UAlbany, less than 50 miles from Greenwich, N.Y. where they grew up. This will allow their family and community to come to the game as well. Bob plans to wear a t-shirt that community members and his wife Edith designed which reads “A House Divided, Lilly vs. Sophie” with the UAlbany and Rhode Island logos.

Bob, Lilly and Sophie are all excited for the sisters and their teams to face off. “Me and Sophie are both really competitive, and just like playing with each other, growing up, we always wanted to win and beat each other,” Lilly said. “So I feel like that it’s actually happening in real life now. It’s really cool, and I’m super happy that it’s in Albany, just so that all of our family can be there.” 

The URI campus is more than 200 miles from Sophie’s hometown, so she doesn’t see her family in big groups often. She says she’s looking forward to seeing the support from her community, who she says “show up and show out for everything.” She added, “I remember when my high school team made it to the sectional finals and state tournament, like our whole town came out to support us. So it feels good to be back going home.”

While Sophie thinks playing against her sister is going to be fun, she acknowledges it’s going to be unusual. “It’s gonna be weird, honestly, especially with my family there,” she said. “…[T]hey’ve always been cheering us both on, but on the same team, or if in college, it’ll just be her or just be me, but like, it’s gonna be interesting, because obviously, you want her to succeed, but in the game that we’re playing against her, of course, we want to beat her.”

Bob and Edith typically sit in line with half court at UAlbany’s Broadview Center, but Bob notes he hasn’t figured out how he’s handling cheering for this game, aside from rooting for them equally. “I honestly have never had to do it, so I can’t tell you, it’ll be a game-time decision, I guess, on our part,” Bob said. “But we just want them to have fun. And have people locally, and family and friends that can watch them both play at the same time. That’s the only time it has happened or will happen. So it should be special.” 

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Lilly and Sophie have talked a lot about the upcoming game, including strategies and trying to get more insight into the other’s team. Each of them thinks their team will win the match-up and there’s been plenty of trash-talking leading up to the game. While the two agree that Lilly is usually the better trash talker, Sophie has taken it up a notch ahead of this particular game. “I’m so competitive, so I never want to lose, especially to my sister,” Sophie said. “… [B]ecause basketball and competing against her has always — that’s when I’m most competitive.”

While Bob knows that one daughter will come away with a win on Friday night, he hopes both are successful and looks forward to watching them play against each other.

“They’ve always been really close, and they’ve been each other’s best friend,” he said. “And Edith and I know that that’s going to continue no matter what the outcome [is]. … it’s also the opportunity for them to be on the court together, which they haven’t done since high school. So we’re grateful. It’s a special thing, and we just hope that they have a really good time, and both their teams compete well … and they have fun doing it.”