Chassell Adds Chapter to Storybook Season
March 15, 2018
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
GRAND RAPIDS – The possibility of a Chassell basketball team playing for an MHSAA championship for the first time since 1958 was within reach with a half remaining Thursday.
But earning that opportunity would take some work.
The Panthers trailed Waterford Our Lady by nine during their Class D Semifinal at Van Noord Arena – and senior point guard Milly Allen had an uncharacteristic eight turnovers.
“At halftime we realized we needed to push, and that if we played our game we’d be perfectly fine,” Allen said. “We came out in the second half, kept chipping away.
“We worked together as a team. We told each other we need to come out, we need to bounce pass, we need to be smarter with the ball all together.”
Chassell had only three turnovers as a team during the second half. Allen had none. And the ball spent most of the final minutes safely in her hands as Chassell’s girls team continued its longest run in program history with a 55-51 victory.
Chassell (26-1) will play Adrian Lenawee Christian in Saturday’s 10 a.m. championship game.
The Panthers’ Regional title last week was the first won by either the girls or boys basketball programs since the boys won three straight Class D titles from 1956-58.
“This means the world. They’ve earned it,” Chassell coach Brandi Hainault said. “They’ve worked hard, and we always knew we could get here. … I guess in our minds, this is where we were going to go. For it to happen, it’s just an amazing feeling.”
Some big-time second half efforts made it reality.
Four players combined to score all but two of Chassell’s points – Allen finished with 17, senior center Sydney Danison 15, senior forward Meg Hokenson 10 and junior guard Jenna Pietila 11. But they’d combined for only 24 of those 53 points during the first half.
Allen scored 11 of her 17 during the final two quarters, and also finished with five assists and three steals – and plenty of praise from Our Lady coach Steve Robak.
“(She) was very fast and we didn’t do a good job containing her. She was able to get around us when we’d try to press or trap, and that’s what created the most problems,” he said.
“They tried to get the ball to (Allen) every time and have her try to do her thing, which is use her speed. Maybe in the first half we did a better job containing her, but I felt like most of the game we had trouble with (her) when she had the ball.”
The 6-foot-1 Danison also made an impression during the second half with nine of her points and a strong presence defensively.
The Lakers started off the game hitting 52 percent of their shots during the first two quarters. They then made only 27 percent during the third quarter and 21 percent during the fourth.
Our Lady had only nine turnovers for the game – but along with the tough shooting night was outrebounded 36-25.
Senior Tiffany Senerius had 19 points and four steals to lead Our Lady (20-5), and senior Kayla Sanders added 18 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.
“We had five seniors, three were starters, and I’m extremely proud of the entire team because the entire team had an incredible season,” Robak said. “We had four losses (before Thursday) all year to four really good teams, two of which are still playing. So I’m proud of this team and everything they gave. The seniors gave everything they had.”
Our Lady has had its share of storybook endings lately with three Semifinal runs over the last four seasons and three championships over the last eight.
In Chassell, stories of the 1956-58 boys championship teams continue to be told. Now the girls are carving out their place in local and state history.
“It’s awesome for them. They had three state championships, and that’s something you’re going to talk about for the rest of your time around,” Hainault said. “I guess we want to start our own story.”
PHOTOS: (Top) Chassell’s Milly Allen dives for a loose ball during Thursday’s Class D Semifinal. (Middle) Our Lady’s Kayla Sanders puts up a shot over Allen’s reach.
Davis Twins Putting Finishing Touches on Doubly Sensational West Bloomfield Legacy
By
Keith Dunlap
Special for MHSAA.com
January 25, 2024
Indya and Summer Davis are like most twins in that it often is hard to tell their differences.
But each definitely is her own person, especially off of the court.
Indya likes fish and lasagna, while Summer doesn’t.
Summer’s favorite color is blue, while Indya prefers pink.
Indya’s favorite music artist is Brent Faivaz, while Summer likes Kanye West.
There are also some subtle differences on the basketball court too as they proceed through their senior year at West Bloomfield.
While both are 5-foot-9, Indya spends more of her time in the paint dominating the boards and getting points in the post, while Summer is sharp shooting from the outside and helps facilitate the offense.
“I’m more on the arc than she is,” Summer Davis said. “She is more like an inside player, but she can (play the perimeter) too. With most of the positions how they are (on the team), she is more on the inside.”
However, just like they complement each other off the court, they have brilliantly done the same for the past three seasons in taking the West Bloomfield girls basketball program to new heights.
As sophomores, the duo was the centerpiece of a West Bloomfield team that won the Division 1 championship, the first in program history. The twins were better last year as juniors, but couldn’t quite help lead the Lakers to a repeat with a 40-36 loss to Rockford in the championship game at Breslin Center.
Even better and hungrier this year as seniors, the Davis twins not only form the best tandem on a team in the state, but they might end up as each other’s biggest competition for the Miss Basketball Award.
It’s certainly hard to tell them apart on the court, and that has everything to do with their games and not solely focusing on the fact they are identical twins.
The two might have different roles at the moment in West Bloomfield’s system, but if you asked them to reverse roles with Indya moving to the perimeter and Summer inside, they would likely thrive just as much.
“We’re definitely all-around players,” Indya Davis said.
West Bloomfield head coach Darrin McAllister said that has been the case since he first met the twins as middle schoolers playing in the Michigan Storm AAU program.
McAllister said the Davis twins were like sponges back then wanting to absorb as much knowledge as they could, even if McAllister wasn’t technically their coach because he was presiding over an older-aged team within the program.
“I think they were about sixth or seventh grade,” McAllister said. “After every practice, they would come up to me and say, ‘Hey can you show me this? Can you show me that?’ To be honest with you, I was tired and ready to go home, but these little kids wanted to learn. They continued to come in and bug me about little things. Some of the moves we worked on when they were in sixth and seventh grade, they’re executing right now.”
Summer Davis said she has always had basketball as her No. 1 sport, but Indya said she did dabble a bit in tennis and gymnastics when she was younger.
By the time they were 10 years old, they decided to focus solely on basketball, and the rest is history.
Following Friday’s game against Oxford, Summer leads the team in scoring at 17.2 points per game, assists at 4.9 a contest, and steals at 5.3 a game.
Indya Davis is averaging just over 15 points a game to go along with 6.6 rebounds for a West Bloomfield team that is 9-0. The stats would probably be even higher, but the Lakers haven’t played in many close games this year and the twins’ minutes have been limited. West Bloomfield also gets significant contributions from senior Kendall Hendrix, another future Division I college player who has signed with Loyola Chicago.
Once their high school careers are over, the Davis twins will continue to play together at Georgia. The twins originally committed to Michigan State, but decommitted after former head coach Suzy Merchant resigned.
While wanting to rack up stats and be 1-2 in the Miss Basketball voting, the two are also identical and aligned in their prime motivation for the rest of their final high school season.
That would be to get back on top of the state and avenge the loss to Rockford in last year’s Final.
“I think we’re more about the lesson we learned from it,” Indya Davis said. “How driven we are to come back stronger than we were. Look at where we made mistakes and what we can do better. Just come out harder than ever.”
As has been the case throughout their careers, two would be better than one when it comes to Division 1 championships for the Davis sisters and West Bloomfield.
Keith Dunlap has served in Detroit-area sports media for more than two decades, including as a sportswriter at the Oakland Press from 2001-16 primarily covering high school sports but also college and professional teams. His bylines also have appeared in USA Today, the Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, the Houston Chronicle and the Boston Globe. He served as the administrator for the Oakland Activities Association’s website from 2017-2020. Contact him at [email protected] with story ideas for Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties
PHOTOS (Top) West Bloomfield’s Summer Davis (23) brings the ball up the court during last season’s Division 1 Semifinal win over Salem, with sister Indya Davis (24) leading the way. (Middle) Summer, left, and Indya Davis last week.