Countdown to Calvin: Girls Report Post-Break

January 8, 2018

By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor

The girls basketball holiday break over the last three weeks featured some shaking up among the usual powers in Flint, Midland and Detroit.

It will be especially intriguing to see if that early re-ordering was a sign of things to come as the first full week of 2018 is loaded with opportunities for recent risers to take over top spots. 

Countdown to Calvin is powered by MI Student Aid and based on results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com. To offer corrections, email me at [email protected].

Week in Review

The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results: 

1. Flint Beecher 52, Flint Hamady 39 – The Buccaneers had seen the last four seasons end against Class C power Hamady, having suffered three losses to the Hawks in 2016-17 alone. 

2. Midland 49, Midland Dow 37 – Dow had owned this rivalry with seven straight wins over the last three seasons.

3. Detroit Edison Public School Academy 70, Detroit Martin Luther King 42 – The reigning Class C champion is considered perhaps the best team in the state regardless of class, and downing the Class A Crusaders helped that argument.

4. DeWitt 40, Howell 36 – This pair of Class A contenders is a combined 16-2, with this the Highlanders’ only defeat this season.

5. Jackson Northwest 66, Coldwater 64 (OT) – Both have only one loss and should be in the mix in the ultra-competitive Interstate 8 Athletic Conference race.

Watch List

With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each class making sparks: 

CLASS A 

Ann Arbor Huron (8-1) – The River Rats are undefeated since falling to DEPSA in their season opener. They got past always-solid Grand Haven by six at the Motor City Roundball Classic and are tied for first in the Southeastern Conference Red in part because of a one-point win over Temperance Bedford (6-2). Huron won the league and made the Quarterfinals last season.

Saginaw Heritage (7-0) – The Hawks are playing for a fourth straight finish with at least 20 wins, and have allowed two opponents to get within 16 points so far this winter. Heritage handed losses to both Flint Carman-Ainsworth and Freeland (both 6-2), the two teams that have gotten the closest to matching up.

CLASS B

Jackson Northwest (6-1) – With the top four teams in the Interstate 8 a combined 25-3, and annual Class B power Marshall not among them, the league is stacking up as potentially one of the state’s strongest. Northwest, last season’s I8AC runner-up, has fallen this season only to also one-loss Battle Creek Harper Creek, by three.

Kalkaska (7-0) – The Blazers didn’t get their first real scare last season until suffering their first loss, in February, but survived a two-point win against Lake City to finish 2017. Coming up Friday is Traverse City St. Francis, which joined Kalkaska as last year’s Lake Michigan Conference co-champion.

CLASS C

Negaunee (9-0) – After finishing second to Norway in the Mid-Peninsula Athletic Conference last season, the Miners are surging and don’t have to deal with the Knights, now in the Skyline Central Conference instead. Not that it would matter; Negaunee has won all of its games by at least 14 points, Ishpeming getting the closest in suffering its lone loss.

Pittsford (8-0) – Now in Class C, and after graduating all-state pair Maddie Clark and Jaycie Burger, Pittsford just keeps winning. The two-time reigning Class D champ has won 63 straight games, building the sixth-longest streak in MHSAA history. Only Manchester has gotten within single digits.

CLASS D

Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart (7-0) – Sacred Heart, the 2014 Class D champion and 2016 runner-up, would have no problem moving into the spot Pittsford has vacated. Four wins of at least 40 points, including one against Class C Carson City-Crystal (6-2), make the Irish look geared up for a run already.

Waterford Our Lady (6-2) – The Lakers opened 1-2 with losses to reigning Class B champion Detroit Country Day and runner-up Ypsilanti Arbor Prep. They’ve since rattled off five straight wins including two over Class A Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield.

Can't-Miss Contests

Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:  

Tuesday – East Kentwood (9-0) at Caledonia (7-0) – East Kentwood beat Caledonia three times last season on the way to finishing Class A runner-up, but by only five and four during the regular-season meetings.

Tuesday – Saginaw Valley Lutheran (4-1) at Hemlock (7-0) – These two tied for second in the Tri-Valley Conference West last season but hold the top two spots early this winter.

Thursday – DEPSA (6-0) at Ypsilanti Arbor Prep (6-2) – With Arbor Prep moving into Class C this school year, this could be a matchup of the two best teams in that class.

Friday – Laingsburg (5-0) at Pewamo-Westphalia (7-0) – No one has challenged the reigning Class C runner-up Pirates so far, but Laingsburg could be the first; the Wolfpack was one of only four teams to come within single digits (twice) of P-W last season.

Friday – Kalkaska (7-0) at Traverse City St. Francis (3-1) – See explanation for Kalkaska above for why this could be pivotal in the Lake Michigan Conference race.

PHOTO: One of Saginaw Heritage’s closest wins of a perfect start came against Freeland at the end of December. (Click for more from HighSchoolSportsScene.com.)

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.

Greater DetroitBut 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. 

Summer, left, and Indya Davis last week.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 DunlapKeith 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.