How does one quantify a thousand? One thousand miles is the approximate distance from St. Louis to Montpelier, Vermont. One thousand one-dollar bills would be about 4.3 inches tall. One thousand words would probably fill this page at size nine font. Between two KHS girls’ basketball players, one thousand represents over two decades of commitment and a bond that can’t be broken. Lauryn Miller, sophomore, and Jordan Roundtree, junior, grew up with basketball coursing through their veins.

Roundtree was born in Tampa Bay, Florida, but her dad’s job beckoned the family to St. Louis, where Jordan has spent the majority of her life. After a stint playing for Ladue Middle School, she transitioned to AAU basketball, where she met one her best friends, Lauryn Miller. The two played together for a number of years on Team Adidas, a team that consistently produces Division I players. According to Ramona Miller, Lauryn’s mom and KHS senior class principal, the two families would sometimes get a bite to eat together after games or visit at each other’s houses. However, being a year apart in school and living in different school districts, as Roundtree entered her freshman year of high school at Parkway West High School, her and Miller were temporarily forced to part ways on the court.

Roundtree played two years on the varsity squad at Parkway West, where she averaged 17 points, 4 rebounds and 2.3 assists her sophomore year. That same year, Lauryn began her high school career, averaging an astounding 18 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.7 blocks per game.

After that school year ended, it was again time for the Roundtrees to pack their bags, leaving their home in Town & Country for a life in Kirkwood, an area they were already familiar with because of the Millers. Oct. 4, just months into the year at KHS, Jordan verbally committed. Despite looks from Memphis, Northwestern, Texas A&M, Depaul, SLU, SIU-Edwardsville, Texas-Arlington and Georgia Southern, Roundtree stuck with her roots, Mizzou, where her dad, Bill Roundtree, also played basketball in the ‘80s.

“My dad helped me start playing when I was like 4, so he helped me with my shot, and really with everything I know about basketball,” Roundtree said. “Mizzou has always been my favorite school, so when they offered, I knew where I was going to college.”

Miller, on the other hand, has her own laundry list of suitors, including offers from Arkansas, Texas Tech, Alabama, Mizzou, Kansas, Louisville, South Carolina and SLU. Her dad, Alvin Miller, a constituent of Pioneer athletic folklore, was also highly recruited and went on to play football for Notre Dame, but his career was cut short by a knee injury. Nevertheless, sports have consistently been a key ingredient to the Miller stew.

“Competition has always fueled my household, whether it’s basketball, bowling or board games,” Lauryn said. “My dad used to coach when I was younger and my mom was always that screaming parent.”

The ability of athletics to bring a family closer together presented itself to the Roundtree family as well, and despite their multiple moves, they’ve never moved further from each other.

“My dad and I bonded over basketball when I was young, and my mom just kinda fell into it,” she said. “She never played basketball, but she fell in love with the sport and that’s what keeps my family together.”

Basketball has tethered two families and two friends closer together. Now, Miller is within shouting distance of reaching 1,000 points for her respective high school career, a moment that cannot be quantified by tangible numbers. Roundtree reached the one 1,000-point milestone after putting up 34 points against Eureka on senior night, Feb. 24. And if one thousand points is the distance to Vermont, these two girls could be on a trip to Europe, especially since they still have another year, two in Miller’s case, of high school ball to play.

“It means a lot because growing up I saw other girls get their thousandth, and that was something I always really wanted,” Lauryn said. “I saw girls that I competed with get it, and I always wanted to be a part of that conversation.”