PALS Georgia Jones and Lauren Thomas-Johnson are preparing for a special reunion – and their mums are flying across the Atlantic to be there too.

The pair, once team-mates at Manchester Mystics and on England junior teams, both have key roles on NCAA Division One American university teams, and have been pitched against each other almost a decade after they set out in the sport together.

They pair will come face to face in Milwaukee Saturday as Georgia’s Oral Roberts University team – from Tulsa, Oklahoma – visit Marquette for a pre-season showdown.

Georgia’s mum, Freda, and Lauren’s mum, Jane, will be in a packed crowd with a giant Union Jack to cheer their daughters on.

Freda, from Urmston, said: “The teams are in different conferences, so it is an amazing coincidence that they are playing against each other for this match.

“As soon as I found out I said to Lauren’s mum, ‘We have to go’.

“They will both be nervous about playing against each other but delighted to meet up again after spending so much of their childhoods playing together.”

The pair, who met at a Manchester Magic session at Manor High School in Sale, were marked for big things when they won a national shootout competition together when Georgia was just 10 and Lauren 12, and went on to play together in the National League and in international competition.

Friends

“They hit it off straight away and became great friends,” added Freda, who later watched proudly as Georgia, 18, became the youngest player to represent the senior Great Britain team.

 “They were together three or four times a week for years, but haven’t played together for a few years so they are really excited.”

Georgia – whose dad Jeff played for Manchester Giants and coaches Magic – is just embarking on her Stateside adventure after helping GB into the top division in Europe last summer.

“It is something new and far away from home but I’m looking forward to the challenge,” she said.

Lauren, 20, has moved to Marquette this season after studying in the US at Notre Dame Academy and Kirkwood College in Virginia for the last four years.

Her dad Donald Johnson, of Stockport, said: “Lauren is delighted to be seeing Georgia again. And both the mums are thrilled to be seeing the girls and are happy to travel all that way.

“The girls are getting top-notch education and basketball coaching over there and I’m in touch with Lauren more now, with instant messaging and Facebook and everything else, than when she was upstairs in her bedroom!

“She has ambitions to play professionally and we are hopeful she will.”

Both girls have an eye on playing in the 2012 London Olympics.

“That is realistic possibility,” said Jeff Jones. “If they both stay healthy and keep progressing, they could be playing together for Great Britain in the Olympics in four years.”

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